ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL 
ENGINEER 


"Robinson  Crusoe,  a  fairy  tale  to  the  child,  a  book  of 
adventure  to  the  young,  is  a  work  on  social  philosophy  to 
the  mature.  It  is  a  picture  of  civilization.  The  essential 
moral  attributes  of  man,  his  innate  impulses  as  a  social  being, 
his  absolute  dependence  on  society,  even  as  a  solitary  indi- 
vidual, his  subjection  to  the  physical  world,  and  his  alliance 
with  the  animal  world,  the  statical  elements  of  social  philos- 
ophy, and  the  germs  of  man's  historical  evolution  have  never 
been  touched  with  more  sagacity,  and,  assuredly,  have  never 
been  idealized  with  such  magical  simplicity  and  truth/' 

— FREDERIC  HARRISON 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE 
SOCIAL    ENGINEER 


How  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  ROBINSON  CRUSOE  SOLVES 

THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  OPENS  THE  PATH 

TO  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE 


BY 


HENRY  E.  JACKSON 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  NEW  CHIVALRY,"  ''A  COMMUNITY  CENTER/'  ETC. 
PRESIDENT  OF  NATIONAL  COMMUNITY  BOARD 


Robinson  Crusoe  is  the  epic  of  self-help. 

— JOHN  MORLEY. 


NEW   YORK 
E.    P.    BUTTON   &   COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright,  1922 
By  E.  P.  Button  &  Company 

—          H 

All  Rights  Reserved 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  OF  AMERICA 


Dedicated 

TO  ALL  WHO  LABOR  IN  MODERN  INDUSTRY,  BOTH 
MANAGERS  AND  MEN,  IN  THE  HOPE  THAT 
THROUGH  THE  NEW  SCIENCE  OF  HUMAN  ECON- 
OMY THEY  WILL  DISCOVER  THAT  THEY  ARE  NOT 
RIVALS  BUT  ALLIES  IN  A  COMMON  ENTERPRISE. 


FOREWORD 

IN  remote  recesses  of  lonely  mountain  sides  trav- 
elers frequently  have  found  the  skeleton  remains  of 
two  animals  lying  side  by  side,  as  if  they  had  per- 
ished together  by  mutual  consent.  It  is  a  curious 
phenomenon. 

It  means  that  two  buck  deer  had  engaged  in  mor- 
tal combat  and  locked  horns  in  a  war  of  extermina- 
tion, from  which  the  only  escape  was  by  slow  star- 
vation. It  was  a  peace  without  victory  for  either. 
It  was  the  peace  of  death.  Neither  could  entangle 
the  other  without  entangling  himself.  You  cannot 
hold  another  man  down  in  the  gutter  without  remain- 
ing down  in  the  gutter  with  him. 

The  tragedy  of  the  horn-locked  deer  aptly  exhibits 
the  condition  of  capitalists  and  laborers  during  the 
past  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  They,  too,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  deer,  have  like  interests.  These  like 
interests  are  common  interests.  Industrial  conflicts 
are,  therefore,  civil  wars.  Mutual  hatred,  as  with 
the  deer,  has  blinded  them  to  this  fact  and  produced 
tragic  results. 

The  aim  of  this  book  is  to  state,  in  popular  and 
picturesque  fashion,  what  the  discovery  of  a  commu- 
nity of  interest  would  mean  to  modern  industry.  The 

vii 


viii  FOREWORD 

author  believes  that  a  policy  built  on  this  discovery 
is  the  path  to  industrial  peace,  and  that  there  is  no 
other.  He  also  believes  that  this  principle  has  the 
creative  power  to  build  a  New  Industrial  America. 

HENRY  E.  JACKSON. 

Washington,  D.C. 
September,  1922. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I.     THE  SECRET  OF  ROBINSON 
CRUSOE'S    POPULARITY 

CHAPTER  'AGE 

I.  AN  UNDISCOVERED  BOOK 3 

II.  A  BOOK  CAPTURED  BY  BOYS  .....  9 

III.  A  JOKE  ON  THE  BRITISH  NATION  ....  16 

IV.  JOURNALISM  BORN  IN  A  GOAL      ....  21 
V.  LYING  LIKE  THE  TRUTH 23 

VI.  THE  FIRST  MODERN  NOVEL 28 

VII.  ROMANCE  WITHOUT  A  LOVE  STORY  .     .     .31 

VIII.  THE  CHARM  OF  UNCERTAINTY     .     .     .     .37 

IX.  ROMANTICIZING  THE  COMMONPLACE  .     .     .     40 

X.  EVERY  INCH  A  MAN 46 

PART  II.     ROBINSON   CRUSOE'S   CHALLENGE 
TO  MODERN  INDUSTRY 

I.    GREATNESS  UNAWARES 53 

II.  CRUSOE  AS  A  RIP  VAN  WINKLE  ....  56 

III.  THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION       ....  61 

IV.  THE  DESERTED  VILLAGE 67 

V.    THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN 73 

VI.    WHY  LABOR  UNIONS  AROSE 83 

VII.     LABOR  AS  A  COMMODITY 91 

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VIII.    THE  RIGHT  TO  GET  DRUNK 97 

IX.     NOTHING  BUT  WAGES 105 

X.    A  DIVIDED  HOUSE 114 

PART  III.    HOW  ROBINSON  CRUSOE  SOLVES 
THE  LABOR  PROBLEM 

I.    POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY 123 

II.     FRACTIONIZING  A  MAN 135 

III.  MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER" 141 

IV.  A  MAY-DAY  PARTY 155 

V.    WHOSE  BUSINESS  is  THIS? 159 

VI.  CREATING  A  DISPUTE 174 

VII.  REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT 208 

VIII.  A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS 227 

IX.  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA 256 

X.  SPORTSMANSHIP  277 

AFTERWORD 291 

LIST  OF  REFERENCES .  293 

INDEX  .  297 


PART  1 

THE    SECRET   OF    ROBINSON    CRUSOE'S 
POPULARITY 


"Robinson  Crusoe"  contains,  not  for  boys  but  for  men, 
more  religion,  more  philosophy,  more  political  economy, 
more  anthropology,  than  are  found  in  many  elaborate 
treatises  on  these  special  subjects. 

— FREDERICK  HARRISON. 


PART  I 

THE    SECRET    OF    ROBINSON    CRUSOE'S 
POPULARITY 


CHAPTER    I 

AN  UNDISCOVERED  BOOK 

/"T"NHAT  "Robinson  Crusoe"  challenges  modern 
•••  industry  on  the  foundation  of  its  structure  and 
also  offers  the  solution  of  its  problem  which,  if 
operated,  guarantees  to  open  the  path  to  permanent 
industrial  peace,  is  the  audacious  proposition  which 
this  book  undertakes  to  demonstrate.  It  looks  like 
a  big  contract.  It  is.  But  the  writer  believes  that 
it  is  not  only  not  an  impossible  task,  but  will  reveal 
the  obvious  and  only  solution  of  industrial  unrest. 
Inasmuch  as  the  obvious  is  always  the  last  thing 
discovered,  it  will  be  necessary,  for  the  sake  of 
clarity,  to  take  the  reader  on  a  quest  for  the  secret 
of  the  amazing  popularity  of  "Robinson  Crusoe." 
When  this  secret  is  made  apparent,  it  will  lead  us 
by  an  unmistakable  path  to  the  heart  of  our  ques- 
tion. As  compensation  to  the  reader  for  the  delay 
in  coming  to  grips  with  the  subject,  the  romantic 

3 


ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 


>£;  :thb>  remarkable  book  will  entertain  him 
sufficiently  while  he  journeys  toward  the  application 
of  its  secret  to  the  labor  problem. 

It  is  rare  pleasure  to  a  writer  or  speaker,  when  he 
feels  that  he  is  introducing  his  audience  to  a  subject 
new  and  fresh.  It  is  likewise  a  pleasure  to  his 
audience.  Such  a  pleasure  is  now  ours,  for  my 
subject  is  :  "The  life  and  strange,  surprising  adven- 
tures of  Robinson  Crusoe,  of  York,  Mariner,  who 
lived  eight  and  twenty  years  all  alone  in  an  uninhab- 
ited island  off  the  coast  of  America,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  great  river  Aroonoque;  having  been  cast  on 
shore  by  shipwreck,  wherein  all  the  men  perished 
but  himself.  With  an  account  how  he  was  at  last 
as  strangely  delivered  by  pirates.  Written  by  him- 
self." 

The  title  page  here  quoted  undoubtedly  has  a 
familiar  sound  and  carries  us  far  back  across  the 
years  to  the  days  of  fresh  delight,  when  as  boys 
we  joined  Crusoe  in  our  imagination  in  those 
strange  adventures  out  into  the  big  world,  and  often 
wished  we  might  have  done  so  in  reality.  For 
almost  every  boy  and  girl  has  entertained  the  secret 
desire  and  purpose  to  run  away  from  home,  because 
they  find  the  world  of  adulthood  too  tame  and  too 
oppressive.  To  that  mood  in  a  boy's  life,  Crusoe 
makes  an  irresistible  appeal  and  also  supplies  a 
soothing  antidote.  At  least  he  can  make  his  adven- 
ture by  proxy  and  enjoy  the  thrill  of  it  vicariously. 

How  then  can  it  be  said  that  a  book  is  new  and 


AN  UNDISCOVERED  BOOK  5 

fresh  which  has  been  read  by  every  boy  and  girl  in 
the  English-speaking  world  for  the  past  two  hun- 
dred years?  No  kind  of  subject  is  so  difficult  to 
understand  the  inner  meaning  of  as  is  the  thing  we 
think  we  already  know.  The  significance  of  the 
commonplace  eludes  us  just  because  it  is  regarded 
as  commonplace.  It  is  handicapped  by  too  much 
superficial  familiarity.  Every  one,  for  example,  is 
quite  sure  that  he  knows  the  color  of  apple  blos- 
soms or  the  meaning  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  whereas 
a  few  test  questions  disclose  the  fact  that  it  is  rare 
to  find  anyone  who  understands  either  of  them. 

In  order  to  learn  the  true  nature  of  familiar 
things,  it  is  necessary  to  go  through  the  process  of 
unlearning  the  false.  But  to  unlearn  is  a  painful 
process,  especially  if  the  process  runs  counter  to 
self-interest,  or  to  childhood  impressions.  Both  of 
these  influences  have  delayed  the  discovery  of  the 
real  "Robinson  Crusoe."  It  may  serve  to  awaken  us 
to  the  value  of  this  undiscovered  book,  if  we  observe 
the  curious  use  made  of  it  by  one  of  the  characters 
in  Wilkie  Collins'  "Moonstone." 

In  this  story,  the  old  servant,  Gabriel  Betteredge, 
has  a  superstitious  reverence  for  "Robinson  Cru- 
soe." The  book  is  his  Bible.  "I  have  read,"  he 
says,  "a  heap  of  books  in  my  time;  I  am  a  scholar 
in  my  own  way.  Though  turned  seventy,  I  possess 
an  active  memory,  and  legs  to  correspond.  You  are 
not  to  take  it,  if  you  please,  as  the  saying  of  an 
ignorant  man,  when  I  express  my  opinion  that  such 


6        ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

a  book  as  'Robinson  Crusoe'  never  was  written  be- 
fore, and  never  will  be  written  again. 

"I  have  tried  that  book  for  years — generally  in 
combination  with  a  pipe  of  tobacco — and  I  have 
found  it  my  friend  in  need  in  all  the  necessities  of 
this  mortal  life.  When  my  spirits  are  bad — 'Rob- 
inson Crusoe.'  When  I  want  advice — 'Robinson 
Crusoe.'  In  past  times,  when  my  wife  plagued  me ; 
in  present  times,  when  I  have  had  a  drop  too  much 
— 'Robinson  Crusoe.7 

"I  have  worn  out  six  stout  Robinson  Crusoes  with 
hard  work  in  my  service.  On  my  lady's  last  birth- 
day she  gave  me  a  seventh.  I  took  a  drop  too  much 
on  the  strength  of  it;  and  'Robinson  Crusoe'  put  me 
right  again.  Price  four  shillings  and  sixpence, 
bound  in  blue,  with  a  picture  into  the  bargain." 

Betteredge  consulted  the  book  frequently  for 
prophetic  warning  and  counsel.  On  one  occasion, 
for  example,  he  was  trying  to  dissuade  Dr.  Jennings 
from  a  certain  medical  experiment  he  was  trying. 
"Mr.  Jennings,  do  you  happen  to  be  acquainted  with 
'Robinson  Crusoe'?"  I  answered  that  I  had  read 
"Robinson  Crusoe"  when  I  was  a  child.  "Not  since 
then?"  inquired  Betteredge.  "Not  since  then."  He 
fell  back  a  few  steps,  and  looked  at  me  with  an 
expression  of  compassionate  curiosity,  tempered  by 
superstitious  awe.  "He  has  not  read  'Robinson 
Crusoe'  since  he  was  a  child,"  said  Betteredge, 
speaking  to  himself — not  to  me.  "Let's  try  how 
'Robinson  Crusoe'  strikes  him  now!" 


AN  UNDISCOVERED  BOOK  7 

"When  the  work-people  are  gone,  my  feelings  as 
a  man  get  the  better  of  my  duty  as  a  servant.  Very 
good.  Last  night,  Mr.  Jennings,  it  was  borne  in 
powerfully  on  my  mind  that  this  new  medical  enter- 
prise of  yours  would  end  badly.  If  I  had  yielded 
to  that  secret  Dictate,  I  should  have  put  all  the 
furniture  away  again  with  my  own  hands,  and  have 
warned  the  workmen  off  the  premises  when  they 
came  the  next  morning." 

"I  am  glad  to  find,  from  what  I  have  seen  up- 
stairs," I  said,  "that  you  resisted  the  secret  Dic- 
tate." "Resisted  isn't  the  word,"  answered  Better- 
edge.  "Wrostled  is  the  word.  I  wrostled  sir, 
between  the  silent  orders  in  my  bosom  pulling  me 
one  way,  and  the  written  orders  in  my  pocket-book 
pushing  me  the  other,  until,  saving  your  presence, 
I  was  in  a  cold  sweat.  In  that  dreadful  perturbation 
of  mind  and  laxity  of  body,  to  what  remedy  did  I 
apply?  To  the  remedy,  sir,  which  has  never  failed 
me  yet  for  the  last  thirty  years  and  more — to  This 
Book! 

"What  did  I  find  here,"  pursued  Betteredge,  "at 
the  first  page  I  opened?  This  awful  bit,  sir,  page 
one  hundred  and  seventy-eight,  as  follows:  'Upon 
these,  and  many  like  Reflections,  I  afterward  made 
it  a  certain  rule  with  me,  That  whenever  I  found 
those  secret  Hints  or  Pressings  of  my  Mind,  to 
doing,  or  not  doing  any  Thing  that  presented;  or  to 
going  this  Way,  or  that  Way,  I  never  failed  to 
obey  the  secret  Dictate.'  As  I  live  by  bread,  Mr. 


8        ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Jennings,  those  were  the  first  words  that  met  my 
eye,  exactly  at  the  time  when  I  myself  was  setting 
the  secret  Dictate  at  defiance !  You  don't  see  any 
thing  at  all  out  of  the  common  in  that,  do  you 
sir?" 

"I  see  a  coincidence — nothing  more."  "You 
don't  feel  at  all  shaken,  Mr.  Jennings,  in  respect 
to  this  medical  enterprise  of  yours?"  "Not  the 
least  in  the  world."  Betteredge  stared  hard  at 
me,  in  dead  silence.  He  closed  the  book  with  great 
deliberation;  he  locked  it  up  again  in  the  cupboard 
with  extraordinary  care;  he  wheeled  round,  and 
stared  hard  at  me  once  more.  Then  he  spoke. 
"Sir,"  he  said,  gravely,  "there  are  great  allowances 
to  be  made  for  a  man  who  has  not  read  'Robinson 
Crusoe'  since  he  was  a  child.  I  wish  you  good- 
morning." 

The  supreme  place  assigned  to  "Robinson  Cru- 
soe" in  this  old  man's  affections  may  seem  to  some 
too  exalted,  but  his  fine  scorn  of  the  man  who  has 
not  read  it  since  he  was  a  boy  is  a  point  well  taken. 
The  book  may  be  enjoyed  by  a  boy;  it  can  only  be 
known  by  a  thoughtful  man. 


CHAPTER  II 

A   BOOK  CAPTURED  BY  BOYS 

\T  7TTH  no  desire  to  indulge  in  unseemly  boasting, 
but  simply  to  point  out  an  interesting  fact, 
I  venture  the  assertion  that  I  have  accomplished  a 
task  which  has  not  been  performed  by  one  man 
in  a  thousand;  I  have  read  the  whole  of  "Robinson 
Crusoe."  Not  that  this  is  especially  a  praiseworthy 
performance,  but  it  shows  how  little  is  generally 
known  of  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  beyond  the  story  of 
his  shipwreck  and  island  life.  There  are  three  parts 
to  "Robinson  Crusoe."  First  the  story  of  the  ship- 
wreck and  the  lonely  island  life, — known  to  almost 
all.  Second,  the  story  of  his  second  visit  to  the 
island  and  his  journey  to  the  Far  East,  returning 
through  China  and  Siberia, — known  to  a  few. 
Third,  the  Serious  Reflections  of  Robinson  Crusoe, 
— known  to  almost  none. 

The  first  part  of  Robinson  Crusoe  became  so 
immediately  and  universally  popular  and  was  found 
to  be  so  rich  a  vein  of  gold  that  Defoe  could  not 
resist  working  it  still  further  by  producing  a  second 
and  even  a  third  part.  He  realized  the  danger  of 
weakening  his  first  success  by  trying  to  add  to  it, 
for  in  his  preface  to  the  second  part  he  says,  "The 

9 


10      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

second  part,  if  the  editor's  opinion  may  pass,  is 
(contrary  to  the  usage  of  second  parts)  every  way 
as  entertaining  as  the  first."  The  world  has  not 
agreed  with  the  editor. 

The  most  the  majority  of  men  know  of  "Robinson 
Crusoe"  is  half  of  the  first  part.  I  say  half  of  the 
first  part,  because  when  a  boy  reads  it,  as  all  boys 
do,  the  serious  and  moral  reflections,  which  it  con- 
tains, are  neither  a  comfort  nor  discomfort  to  him. 
He  just  plods  through  them.  They  mean  nothing 
to  him,  and  since  few  read  the  book,  when  they 
become  men,  the  thing  which  they  remember,  as 
men,  is  the  story  only. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  part  of  "Robinson 
Crusoe,"  which  Defoe  regarded  as  subordinate  and 
which  he  half  apologized  for,  is  the  part  which  the 
world  has  chiefly  prized,  and  the  part  which  he 
chiefly  prized,  the  world  has  mostly  neglected.  In 
the  preface  to  the  second  part,  he  says  of  the  first 
part,  "The  just  application  of  every  incident,  the 
religious  and  useful  inferences  drawn  from  every 
part  are  so  many  testimonies  to  the  good  design 
of  making  it  public  and  must  legitimate  all  the  parts 
that  may  be  called  invention  or  parable  in  the 
story." 

He  even  becomes  pugnacious  in  his  further  re- 
mark that,  "Abridging  this  work  is  as  scandalous 
as  it  is  knavish  and  ridiculous;  seeing  while  to 
shorten  the  book  they  may  seem  to  reduce  the 
value,  they  strip  it  of  all  those  reflections  which,  as 


A  BOOK  CAPTURED  BY  BOYS  11 

well  religious  as  moral,  are  not  only  the  greatest 
beauties  of  the  work,  but  are  calculated  for  the 
infinite  advantage  of  the  reader." 

Defoe  felt  that  the  moral  reflections  were  the 
real  beauties  of  the  work,  and  that  the  story  needed 
them  to  make  its  use  legitimate.  But  the  world 
has  completely  reversed  his  judgment.  And  for 
•good  reason.  The  eighteenth  century  novelists  were 
essentially  preachers.  Richardson  and  Fielding 
preach  quite  as  much  as  Defoe.  They  were  like 
{Stevenson,  who  said  that  he  "would  rise  from  the 
idead  to  preach."  But  none  of  them  had  learned,  as 
Stevenson  did,  that  it  adds  nothing  but  weakness  to 
a  story  to  tag  it  with  a  moral,  that  every  good 
story  does  its  own  preaching  more  effectively  than 
any  moral  tag  can  do. 

Moreover  as  a  work  of  art,  "Robinson  Crusoe" 
ends  when  he  leaves  the  island,  although  the  second 
part  contains  many  passages  of  real  interest.  The 
third  part  is  well  worth  reading  on  its  own  account. 
It  is  in  fact  a  collection  of  six  moral  essays  on  such 
subjects  as  "Solitude,"  "Honesty,"  "Conversation," 
the  point  of  departure  in  each  essay  being  some  point 
of  contact  with  the  experience  of  Crusoe.  They  are 
quite  worth  reading.  Yet  the  second  and  third 
parts  add  nothing  to  the  first  as  a  work  of  art. 
When  Crusoe  ceases  to  be  a  solitary  and  is  brought 
into  touch  with  civilization,  the  dramatic  interest 
in  the  story,  as  well  as  its  significance,  ceases,  so 
far  as  his  own  day  was  concerned.  But  the  dramatic 


12      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

interest  and  significance  have  been  given  rebirth  by 
the  English  Industrial  Revolution  which  occurred 
since  Defoe  wrote.  A  second  part  could  not  have 
been  written  with  success  in  his  day;  it  can  now. 

Defoe  ran  a  real  risk  in  attempting  to  prolong  his 
first  success,  a  risk  which  the  fate  of  the  second  and 
third  parts  abundantly  shows.  It  is  a  striking  con- 
firmation from  literature  of  the  great  principle  in 
Hesiod's  apparent  parodox  that  the  half  is  more 
than  the  whole.  It  is  like  the  story  of  the  young 
gentleman  who  wished  to  signalize  the  birthday  of 
his  lady  love  by  sending  her  twenty  roses,  one  for 
each  year  of  her  life.  He  had  been  lavish  in  his 
expenditure  at  the  florist  shop  and  that  worthy, 
on  receiving  an  order  to  send  the  finest  roses,  re- 
gardless of  expense,  bettered  his  instructions  and 
sent  the  young  lady  thirty  roses.  The  result  may 
be  imagined.  Twenty  roses  were  an  appropriate 
gift;  thirty  were  an  insult.  One  old  horseshoe  is 
good  luck;  a  wagon  load  of  them  is  junk.  It  was 
undoubtedly  to  the  first  part  that  Dr.  Johnson  ap- 
plied his  remark  when  he  asked,  uWas  there  ever 
anything  written  by  mere  man  that  was  wished 
longer  by  its  readers  excepting  'Don  Quixote,' 
'Robinson  Crusoe/  and  the  'Pilgrim's  Progress?'  ' 
If  no  one  can  read  the  first  part  without  wishing  it 
longer,  Defoe  ought  not  to  be  blamed  too  severely 
for  yielding  to  this  desire  and  making  it  longer. 

When  the  first  part  is  considered  alone  it  is  not 
quite  fair  to  Defoe  to  say  that  he  tagged  a  moral  to 


A  BOOK  CAPTURED  BY  BOYS  13 

his  story.  The  fact  is,  he  tagged  the  story  to  the 
moral.  The  fable  is  always  made  for  the  moral, 
he  says,  not  the  moral  for  the  fable.  That  is  to 
say,  his  purpose  was  to  write  a  serious  philosophical 
book  and  he  used  the  story  to  illustrate  his  moral 
principles.  He  distinctly  says  in  the  preface,  "The 
story  is  told  with  modesty,  with  seriousness,  and 
with  a  religious  application  of  events,  to  the  uses 
to  which  wise  men  always  apply  them,  namely,  to 
the  instruction  of  others,  and  the  editor  thinks,  with- 
out further  compliment  to  the  world,  he  does  them 
a  great  service  in  the  publication." 

The  use  which  the  old  servant  in  Wilkie  Collins' 
"Moonstone"  made  of  it,  as  a  practical  moral  guide- 
book, although  whimsical,  was  nevertheless  the  use 
which  Defoe  intended  should  be  made  of  it.  The 
fact  about  the  book,  to  which  I  call  particular  atten- 
tion— a  fact  very  frequently  overlooked — is  that 
"Robinson  Crusoe"  is  primarily  a  deeply  religious 
and  philosophical  book.  It,  therefore,  is  enjoyed  by 
two  classes  of  people :  by  the  boy  for  the  sake  of  the 
story;  by  the  man  for  the  sake  of  the.  philosophy. 
It  is  good  story-telling  and  good  philosophy  both  in 
one.  But  the  philosophy  was  first  in  Defoe's  mind. 
This  fact  has,  of  course,  been  frequently  recognized. 
At  one  time  during  the  period  of  the  French  Rev- 
olution the  book  was  excluded  from  the  public 
schools  of  France  on  the  ground  that  it  was  too 
religious.  Such  men  as  Franklin  and  Lincoln  have 
left  it  on  record  that  "Robinson  Crusoe"  was  one  of 


14      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  few  books  that  influenced  them  permanently  for 
good.  Their  judgment  is  trustworthy  for  they  were 
not  surfeited  by  too  many  books.  Someone  made 
the  brilliant  remark  that  Lincoln  was  raised  on  five 
books  and  consequently  he  grew  up  with  "an  unlit- 
tered  mind." 

It  is  one  of  the  curious  accidents  of  literary  his- 
tory that  the  best  boys'  book  ever  written  was  never 
intended  to  be  such  at  all.  It  was  not  written  for 
boys;  it  was  captured  by  them.  "Robinson  Crusoe" 
was  not  written  for  children,  because  at  the  time 
Defoe  wrote  it,  there  were  no  children;  there  were 
only  grown-ups.  The  little  people  were  not  treated 
as  children,  or  educated,  or  written  for,  or  read 
to  as  children.  The  discovery  of  childhood  is  a 
comparatively  recent  discovery.  The  adaptation  of 
material  for  children,  however,  should  not  lead  us 
to  suppose  that  it  must  be  weakened.  Children  are 
fortunately  different  from  adults,  but  not  inferior. 
Quite  the  contrary.  It  is  the  commonest  of  mistakes 
to  underrate  them.  It  has  helped  us  to  discover  the 
capacity  and  seriousness  of  children  to  notice  that 
the  best  books  for  boys  are  books  not  primarily 
written  for  them.  "Robinson  Crusoe"  is  the  out- 
standing illustration  of  this  fact.  Defoe  was  doubt- 
less totally  unaware  that  he  had  written  one  of  the 
few  immortal  books  in  the  English  language  and 
the  best  boys'  book  ever  produced.  Emerson  once 
remarked  to  Thoreau :  "Who  would  not  like  to  write 
something  which  all  can  read,  like  'Robinson  Cru- 


A  BOOK  CAPTURED  BY  BOYS  15 

soe  ?' '  Defoe  did  not  consciously  try  to  write  some- 
thing that  all  could  read.  He  did  not  write  down  to 
children.  What  happened  was  that  the  romantic 
and  philosophic  interest  in  his  story  was  discovered 
to  be  so  universal  as  to  appeal  to  boys  and  men 
alike. 


CHAPTER  III 

A  JOKE  ON  THE  BRITISH  NATION 

*  I  VHE  origin  of  the  book  is  quite  as  astonishing  as 
•**  the  book  itself.  It  is  a  real  romance  in  the 
history  of  literature.  It  was  on  this  wise :  Defoe 
had  been  a  favorite  with  King  William,  because  of 
the  publication  of  a  pamphlet  in  rhyme,  called,  "The 
True-Born  Englishman."  Its  object  was  to  show 
that  those,  who  found  fault  with  King  William, 
because  he  was  a  foreigner,  had  no  ground  for  their 
criticism,  for  the  whole  population  of  England  was 
made  up  of  the  mingling  of  different  nationalities 
and  every  man  ought  to  be  judged,  therefore,  by  his 
devotion  to  the  interests  of  Britain,  not  by  his  race 
or  birth.  After  showing  that  the  true-born  English- 
man is  a  myth,  because  the  English  are  a  hopelessly 
mixed  race,  he  proceeds: 

From  this  amphibious  ill-born  mob  began 
That  vain  ill-natured  thing,  an  Englishman. 
These  are  the  heroes  that  despise  the  Dutch, 
And  rail  at  new-come  foreigners  so  much, 
Forgetting  that  themselves  are  all  derived 
From  the  most  scoundrel  race  that  ever  lived; 
A  horrid  crowd  of  rambling  thieves  and  drones, 
Who  ransacked  kingdoms  and  dispeopled  towns, 
The  Pict  and  painted  Briton,  treacherous  Scot, 

16 


A  JOKE  ON  THE  BRITISH  NATION         17 

By  hunger,  theft  and  rapine  hither  brought ; 
Norwegian  pirates,  buccaneering  Danes, 
Whose  red-haired  offspring  everywhere  remains, 
Who,  joined  with  Norman-French,  compound  the  breed 
From  whence  your  true-born  Englishmen  proceed. 

The  poem  was  read  by  everybody  and  a  great 
wave  of  laughter  passed  over  London.  Defoe  had 
ridiculed  out  of  the  country  the  unreasoning  preju- 
dice against  the  foreigner.  The  poem  did  King 
William  immense  service  and  Defoe  made  a  thou- 
sand pounds  by  its  sale.  But  the  verse  was  not  of 
a  high  order.  It  began  with  the  well-known  lines: 

Wherever  God  erects  a  house  of  prayer, 
The  Devil  always  builds  a  chapel  there: 
And  't  will  be  found  upon  examination, 
The  latter  has  the  largest  congregation. 

Defoe  was  the  first  rhymer  of  this  old  proverb 
and  the  rider  to  it  is  his  own.  He  was  very  proud 
of  his  poetry.  He  entertained  the  opinion  that  this 
poem  was  a  better  bid  for  fame  than  was  "Robinson 
Crusoe." 

When  King  William  died  suddenly  from  an  acci- 
dent, Defoe's  fortunes  changed.  The  High  Church 
party  came  back  into  power  with  Queen  Anne.  A 
bill  was  introduced  in  Parliament  against  occasional 
conformity,  that  is,  the  device  by  which  dissenters 
managed  to  hold  public  office,  by  kneeling  now  and 
then  at  the  altars  of  the  established  Church  and  re- 
ceiving the  Communion.  The  discussions  on  this 


18      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

subject  led  to  one  of  the  most  striking  episodes  in 
Defoe's  life.  He  had  himself  written  against  the 
practice  of  occasional  conformity  as  an  insincere  act, 
and  had  angered  his  own  party,  the  dissenters,  by 
his  plain  speech.  But  he  now  flew  to  their  rescue, 
when  the  High  Church  party,  intoxicated  by  their 
newly  acquired  power,  began  to  bluster  out  threats 
against  them. 

It  occurred  to  Defoe  that  the  most  effective 
weapon  to  employ  against  the  wild  threats  of  the 
high-fliers  was  ridicule,  and  he  used  it  remorselessly. 
He  published  his  pamphlet,  "The  Shortest  Way  to 
Deal  with  Dissenters."  It  was  an  elaborate  and 
serious  statement  of  the  violent  talk  of  the  high- 
fliers. He  carried  out  these  extreme  views  to  their 
logical  issue  and  reduced  them  to  a  practical  pro- 
posal, the  proposal,  namely,  that  all  dissenting  min- 
isters should  be  hanged  and  their  congregations 
broken  up  and  outlawed.  He  supported  this  thesis 
with  historical  and  logical  reasons  in  such  a  masterly 
manner  that  no  one  suspected  that  it  was  only  a 
boyish  prank.  In  writing  it  Defoe  never  winked  an 
eye.  In  making  his  proposal  he  was  as  serious  as 
was  Swift,  when  he  proposed  to  utilize  the  super- 
abundant babies  of  the  poor  by  eating  them.  De- 
foe's pamphlet  is  an  amusing  exhibit  of  the  fact 
that  one  can  be  entirely  logical  and  entirely  wrong 
at  the  same  time,  just  as  Whately,  in  his  carefully 
elaborated  document,  demonstrated  that  no  such 
person  as  Napoleon  Bonaparte  ever  existed. 


A  JOKE  ON  THE  BRITISH  NATION         19 

When  Defoe's  pamphlet  appeared  the  wildest  ex- 
citement arose.  The  dissenters  were  thrown  into 
a  panic  and  the  high-fliers  began  to  applaud  it,  es- 
pecially those  in  Cambridge  and  Oxford.  He  had 
exposed  the  real  sentiments  of  the  high-fliers  and 
they  were  stupid  enough  to  own  up  to  it.  Every 
one  took  it  for  genuine.  The  joke  had  to  be  ex- 
plained to  the  entire  British  public.  When  it  was 
explained,  a  double  storm  broke  on  Defoe's  head, 
so  that  he  had  to  go  into  hiding.  Both  dissenters 
and  high-fliers  attacked  him.  The  dissenters  because 
of  the  fear  he  had  inspired  in  them,  the  high-fliers 
because  of  the  ridicule  to  which  he  had  subjected 
them. 

The  government  took  charge  of  the  case  and 
offered  fifty  pounds  for  Defoe's  discovery.  The 
description  of  the  fugitive,  which  appeared  in  con- 
nection with  this  advertisement,  is  the  only  extant 
record  of  his  personal  appearance.  It  says,  "He  is 
a  middle-sized,  spare  man,  about  forty  years  old, 
of  a  brown  complexion  and  dark  brown  coloured 
hair;  but  wears  a  wig;  a  hooked  nose,  a  sharp  chin, 
and  a  large  mole  near  his  mouth :  was  born  in  Lon- 
don and  is  now  owner  of  the  brick  and  pantile  works 
near  Tilbury  Fort  in  Essex."  The  portrait  prefixed 
to  his  collected  works  faithfully  reproduces  the 
mole.  Defoe  felt  as  Lincoln  did,  when  he  said  to 
his  portrait-painter,  "When  you  paint  my  portrait 
don't  omit  the  wart." 

When  the  printer  and  bookseller  of  this  remark- 


20      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

able  pamphlet  were  arrested,  then  Defoe  came  out 
of  hiding  and  gave  himself  up,  so  that  they  might 
not  suffer  on  his  behalf.  His  pamphlet  was  ordered 
to  be  burned  by  the  "common  hangman,"  and  the 
punishment  inflicted  on  Defoe  himself  was  very 
heavy.  He  was  sentenced  to  be  imprisoned  during 
the  Queen's  pleasure,  to  pay  two  hundred  marks, 
and  to  find  sureties  of  his  good  behaviour  for  seven 
years.  Not  only  this,  but  he  was  condemned  to 
stand  in  the  pillory  three  times,  before  the  Royal 
Exchange,  at  Cheapside  and  at  Temple  Bar. 

But,  contrary  to  the  gentle  custom  of  the  day,  he 
received  no  insults  or  rotten  eggs.  Garlands  of 
flowers  decked  the  pillory  and  refreshments  were 
brought  to  the  victim.  This  personal  triumph  was 
achieved  partly  by  a  poem,  which  Defoe  had  written 
a  few  days  before,  called  a  "Hymn  to  the  Pillory," 
published  on  the  very  day  of  his  exposure  and 
bought  with  enthusiasm  by  the  crowd.  Its  spirit 
is  shown  in  the  familiar  lines, 

Tell  'em  the  men  that  placed  him  here 

Are  scandals  to  the  times, 
Are  at  a  loss  to  find  his  guilt 

And  can't  commit  his  crimes. 

Defoe's  pluck  had  won  the  day,  and  turned  his  pun- 
ishment into  a  reflection  upon  those  who  had  in- 
flicted it. 


CHAPTER  IV 

JOURNALISM    BORN    IN   A   GAOL 

T  T  is  of  particular  interest  to  modern  journalism, 
-••  that  during  his  imprisonment,  Defoe  did  what 
perhaps  no  man  before  or  after  him  has  done:  he 
originated,  wrote  and  published  a  newspaper.  It 
was  called  UA  Review  of  the  Affairs  of  France.'* 
It  was  a  brilliant  and  graphic  commentary  on  the 
political  affairs  of  Europe,  a  dialogue  between  the 
imprisoned  spectator  of  life  and  the  busy  world 
outside.  The  newspaper  of  that  day  was  not  like 
that  of  today,  a  huge  sheet  made  up  of  paragraphs 
written  by  many  anonymous  persons.  Defoe's 
paper  at  the  start  was  limited  to  eight  and  then  four 
small  quarto  pages  but  written  entirely  by  himself, 
and  he  continued  to  write  it  three  times  a  week  for 
nine  years,  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  variety  of  political 
activities. 

This  newspaper  was  the  first  of  its  kind.  There 
were  other  news  sheets  at  the  time  Defoe  started 
his,  but  they  were  for  the  most  part  taken  up  with 
personal  scandals.  Defoe  realized  the  popularity 
of  this  kind  of  news.  He  knew,  he  said,  that  people 
liked  to  be  amused.  He  supplied  this  want  in  one 
section  of  his  paper,  under  the  title,  "Advice  from 

21 


22      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  Scandalous  Club,  being  a  weekly  history  of 
nonsense,  impertinence,  vice  and  debauchery."  In 
contrasting  Defoe's  with  a  modern  newspaper,  it  is 
to  be  observed  that  only  a  minor  section  of  his 
paper  was  given  up  to  such  stuff,  and  further  that 
the  label  boldly  attached  to  this  section  was  an 
honest  warning  to  the  reader  as  to  what  he  may 
expect  to  find  in  it. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  from  this  section  of 
Defoe's  paper  came  to  Richard  Steele  the  first  sug- 
gestion of  the  "Tatler,"  and  from  the  4<Tatler" 
came  Addison's  "Spectator."  In  the  serious  part 
of  Defoe's  paper,  we  have  the  foundation  of  Eng- 
lish journalism.  It  was  as  Defoe  put  it,  the  history 
of  Europe  written  sheet  by  sheet  and  letting  the 
world  see  it  as  it  went  on.  We  owe  to  him  the 
inauguration  of  modern  journalism  which  has  played 
a  critically  important  role  in  the  modern  world,  an 
institution  big  with  consequences  both  for  good  and 
evil,  and  which  today  constitutes  the  most  complex 
and  crucial  of  public  problems  in  its  bearing  on  the 
transportation  of  ideas  and  the  moulding  of  public 
opinion. 

Thus  did  Defoe,  as  did  Bunyan,  Voltaire,  and 
many  more,  transform  the  gaol  into  a  hall  of  fame. 


CHAPTER  V 

LYING  LIKE  THE  TRUTH 

WHEN  Defoe  came  out  of  prison,  he  found  his 
fortunes  ruined.  But  he  had  made  a  great 
discovery.  He  had  paid  a  big  price  for  it,  but  it 
was  worth  it.  He  had  discovered  a  new  literary 
method  and  the  bent  of  his  own  genius.  The  stupid- 
ity of  the  public,  which  mistook  his  pamphlet  for 
genuine,  revealed  to  Defoe  his  capacity  to  play  with 
perfect  fidelity  the  part  he  had  set  himself.  Thus 
he  hit  on  the  primary  principle  of  modern  fiction. 
He  had  learned  to  lie  like  the  truth.  As  he  himself 
said,  "Lies  are  not  worth  a  farthing  if  they  are  not 
calculated  for  the  effectual  deceiving  of  the  people 
they  are  designed  to  deceive."  He  had  deceived 
the  whole  country,  and  both  political  parties,  by 
his  pamphlet.  He  now  saw  that  his  true  field  was 
realistic  fiction,  so  told  that  people  will  accept  it 
as  true. 

He  made  good  use  of  his  discovery.  On  April 
25,  1719,  he  produced  "Robinson  Crusoe."  He 
was  then  fifty-eight  years  old.  It  frequently  takes 
a  man  a  long  time  to  discover  himself.  The  manu- 
script was  offered  to  the  whole  round  of  the  pub- 
lishing trade  and  refused,  until  one  William  Taylor 

23 


24      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

of  the  Ship,  Paternoster  Row,  was  induced  to  accept 
it.  He  became  the  most  envied  publisher  of  his 
day,  for  out  of  this  single  book  he  made  his  financial 
fortune. 

The  greatness  of  a  book  may  be  measured  by  the 
criticism  it  receives.  "Crusoe"  was  no  exception  to, 
this  rule.  As  early  as  September  of  the  year  of  its 
publication,  bitter  attacks  were  made  upon  it. 
Critics  made  merry  over  the  trifling  inconsistencies 
of  the  story.  How,  for  example,  they  asked,  could 
Crusoe  have  stuffed  his  pockets  with  biscuits,  when 
he  had  taken  off  all  his  clothes  before  swimming  to 
the  wreck?  How  could  he  have  been  at  such  a 
loss  for  clothes,  after  those  he  had  put  off  were 
washed  away  by  the  rising  tide,  when  he  had  the 
ship's  stores  to  choose  from?  How  could  he  have 
seen  the  goat's  eyes  in  the  cave  when  it  was  pitch 
dark?  How  could  the  Spaniards  give  Friday's 
father  an  agreement  in  writing,  when  they  had 
neither  paper  nor  ink?  How  did  Friday  come  to 
know  so  intimately  the  habits  of  bears,  the  bear 
not  being  a  denizen  of  the  West  Indian  Islands? 

Defoe  yielded  to  this  attack  so  far  as  to  let  his 
hero  wear  breeches  in  later  editions.  But  such  tri- 
fling criticisms  are  as  wide  of  the  mark  as  that  of 
George  Cruikshank,  one  of  Crusoe's  illustrators, 
who  had  become  rabid  in  his  teetotalism  and  ob- 
jected to  the  use  of  rum  in  the  story.  Dickens  made 
a  protest  against  introducing  crotchets  of  any  kind 
into  fairyland,  in  his  article  in  Household  Words 


LYING  LIKE  THE  TRUTH  25 

entitled  "Frauds  on  the  Fairies."  "Imagine,"  he 
says,  "a  total  abstinence  edition  of  'Robinson  Crusoe' 
with  the  rum  left  out.  Imagine  a  peace  edition, 
with  the  gunpowder  left  out  and  the  rum  left  in. 
Imagine  a  vegetarian  edition,  with  the  goats'  flesh 
left  out.  Imagine  a  Kentucky  edition  to  introduce 
a  flogging  of  that  'tarnal  nigger,'  Friday,  twice  a 
week.  Imagine  an  Aborigines  Protection  Society 
edition  to  deny  the  cannibalism  and  make  Robinson 
embrace  the  amiable  savages  whenever  they  landed. 
'Robinson  Crusoe'  would  be  edited  out  of  his  island 
in  a  hundred  years,  and  the  island  would  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  editorial  ocean — a  misfortune  which 
happily  has  not  yet  come  to  pass."  "Crusoe"  as  it 
stands  needs  no  apology. 

The  stock  criticism,  which  has  now  settled  down 
into  a  general  impression  is  that  Defoe  stole  his 
story  from  Alexander  Selkirk,  a  Scotchman  from 
Largo,  who  was  marooned  for  four  years  on  the 
island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  which  is  off  the  coast 
of  Chile,  in  South  America.  This  impression  was 
deepened  by  the  poem,  in  which  Cowper  supposes 
Selkirk  to  record  his  feelings,  and  which  begins  with 
the  well-known  lines, 

I  am  monarch  of  all  I  survey, 

My  right  there  is  none  to  dispute. 

In  the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez  on  the  height, 
which  Selkirk  called  his  "look-out,"  two  thousand 
feet  above  sea-level,  a  handsome  tablet  commemo- 


26      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

rates  Selkirk,  ana  yet  the  island  is  called  Crusoe's 
Island.  Excursion  boats  are  advertised  to  run  to 
Crusoe's  Island  and  post-cards,  showing  its  natural 
features,  all  bear  Crusoe's  name.  And  yet  the  scene 
of  Crusoe's  exile  was  not  laid  in  Juan  Fernandez. 
Defoe's  introduction  distinctly  says  that  the  island 
was  at  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  Aroonoque  and 
anyone  who  reads  the  book  sees  that  Crusoe  was 
going  from  the  Brazils  to  Africa,  when  his  boat 
was  shipwrecked. 

The  truth  probably  is,  that  Juan  Fernandez,  is 
the  island  which  Defoe  describes,  but  with  a  story- 
teller's license,  he  changed  its  location.  For  the 
long,  low  beach,  the  cave  on  the  side  of  a  rising 
hill,  and  the  high  lookout,  are  seen  in  the  island 
today  just  as  Defoe  described  them,  and  Robinson 
Crusoe  is  still  the  best  guide  to  the  island.  It  is 
now  inhabited  by  ninety-three  persons  with  an  edu- 
cated European  for  governor,  who  is  a  citizen  of 
Chile.  Its  one  industry  is  a  canning  factory  to 
preserve  the  codfish  and  lobsters  with  which  the 
waters  abound. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  germ  of  Defoe's  book 
was  suggested  by  Selkirk's  experience.  The  story 
was  told  in  Woodes  Rogers'  "Voyage  Around  the 
World"  and  occupied  about  the  space  of  a  news- 
paper column.  Afterwards  Richard  Steele  met  Sel- 
kirk and  described  his  adventure  in  the  twenty-sixth 
number  of  the  "Englishman."  The  story  was  com- 
mon property  for  several  years.  Anyone  could 


LYING  LIKE  THE  TRUTH  27 

have  used  the  bare  facts  to  build  a  story  on,  but 
nobody  did,  until  the  genius  of  Defoe  created  his 
great  masterpiece.  Defoe  could  not  have  stolen  his 
Crusoe  from  Selkirk  any  more  than  a  man  could 
steal  a  silver  dining  service  out  of  pewter  plate. 


R 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   FIRST   MODERN   NOVEL 

OBINSON  CRUSOE"  is  a  novel.    It  is  a  novel 
of  incident.     It  is  the  first  English  novel,  in     >- 


distinction  from  the  old  romances.  Defoe  is  the 
father  of  modern  fiction.  Brander  Matthews  re- 
marks that  there  are  four  stages  in  the  development 
of  fiction:  "First  from  the  Impossible  to  the  Im- 
probable, thence  to  the  Probable  and  finally  to  the 
Inevitable."  Defoe  ushered  in  the  stage  of  the 
Probable. 

No  book  ever  published  was  more  extremely  and 
immediately  popular  than  Crusoe.  A  second  edition 
was  published  May  12,  a  third  on  June  6,  a  spurious 
one  on  August  7,  and  a  fifth  on  the  following  day. 
Five  editions  in  four  months  is  a  rare  achievement. 
It  is  one  of  the  very  few  books  that  ever  ran  through 
a  newspaper  as  a  serial,  after  it  had  been  published 
in  book  form. 

The  same  year  of  its  publication  it  was  translated 
into  German  and  French.  Since  then  it  has  been 
translated  not  only  into  every  living  language  of 
Europe,  but  also  into  the  classical  languages  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  The  traveler  Burckhardt  found 
it  translated  into  Arabic  and  heard  it  read  aloud 

28 


THE  FIRST  MODERN  NOVEL  29 

among  the  wandering  tribes  in  the  cool  of  the  eve- 
ning. I  have  seen  editions  of  it  both  in  Chinese  and 
Japanese.  In  addition  to  its  universai  popularity, 
the  influential  impression  it  made  on  eminent  men 
would  form  a  suggestive  chapter  in  the  biography 
of  the  book.  It  occupied  a  prominent  place  in  the 
little  library  that  nourished  Lincoln's  mental  life. 
For  almost  two  hundred  years  it  has  been  a  living 
book  and  still  is.  There  are  in  America  alone  today 
forty-seven  different  editions  to  be  had,  and  to  this 
large  number  the  Houghton  Mifflin  Company  re- 
cently thought  it  worth  while  to  add  a  new  and 
beautiful  edition.  A  striking  testimony  to  the  in- 
fluence and  popularity  of  "Robinson  Crusoe"  is  the 
great  number  of  books  which  have  been  written  in 
imitation  of  it.  There  are  too  many  to  name.  The 
best  known  of  these  imitations  are,  "Peter  Wilkins," 
"Gulliver's  Travels"  and  "Swiss  Family  Robin- 


son." 


Defoe  wrote  many  other  books.  His  output  was 
over  two  hundred  books  in  all,  some  of  them  of 
great  merit.  Some  indeed  think  that  his  "Journal 
of  the  Great  London  Plague"  is  a  better  work  of 
art  than  "Crusoe."  His  book  on  "Projects"  also 
is  a  notable  book,  dealing  with  such  subjects, 
as  "Banks,"  "Insurance,"  "Stock-Gambling,"  and 
"Higher  Education  for  Women."  In  it  he  was  far 
in  advance  of  his  times  and  anticipated  many  future 
developments.  Benjamin  Franklin  set  a  high  value 
on  this  book.  He  said,  "I  found  a  work  of  Defoe's 


30      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

entitled  'An  Essay  on  Projects,'  from  which  per- 
haps I  derived  impressions  that  have  since  influenced 
some  of  the  principal  events  of  my  life." 

However  good  these  books  are,  it  is  as  the  author 
of  "Robinson  Crusoe"  that  Defoe  is  known.  In  the 
non-conformist  burial  ground  at  Bunhill  Fields  in 
London,  where  stand  monuments  to  John  Bunyan 
and  Isaac  Watts,  there  is  also  a  monument  to  Defoe. 
On  the  flat  stone,  which  formerly  covered  his  grave, 
now  stands  a  marble  obelisk  with  this  inscription: 

DANIEL   DEFOE 

Born  1661  Died  1731 

Author  of  Robinson  Crusoe 

This  monument  is  the  result  of  an  appeal  in  the 
"Christian  World"  to  the  boys  and  girls  of  Eng- 
land for  a  fund  to  place  a  suitable  monument  on 
the  grave  of  Daniel  Defoe.  It  represents  the 
united  contributions  of  seventeen  hundred  persons, 
September,  1870. 


CHAPTER    VII 

ROMANCE  WITHOUT  A   LOVE  STORY 

A  BOOK,  which  occupies  the  place  in  the  world's 
*•*-  literature  which  "Robinson  Crusoe"  has  oc- 
cupied for  almost  two  hundred  years  and  still  re- 
tains, must  hold  a  secret  calculated  to  intrigue  one's 
curiosity  and  challenge  investigation.  What  is  it? 
In  searching  for  the  secret  of  its  popularity  one  is 
surprised  to  discover  the  absence  of  some  elements, 
which  he  might  naturally  expect  to  find.  The  ele- 
ment of  love,  which  plays  so  large  a  part  in  fiction 
as  we  have  come  to  know  it,  is  wholly  absent  from 
Crusoe.  No  modern  novel  and  no  film  story  would 
dare  to  risk  the  omission  of  a  triangle  love-complex, 
but  Crusoe  is  a  romance  without  any  love  story  at 
all.  You  nowhere  in  it  hear  the  consoling  voice  of 
woman  or  the  prattle  of  little  children.  There  is 
no  poetic  description  of  scenery.  There  is  no  pathos 
and  no  humor  in  it.  "You  remember,"  says  Dick- 
ens, writing  to  his  friend  Forster,  "my  saying  to 
you  some  time  ago,  how  curious  I  thought  it  that 
'Robinson  Crusoe'  should  be  the  only  instance  of  an 
universally  popular  book,  that  could  make  no  one 
laugh  and  could  make  no  one  cry."  There  is  little 
else  but  a  conscious  choice  of  commonplaces  and  all 

31 


32      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

told  in  a  simple  matter-of-fact  way.     Its  secret  cer- 
tainly does  not  lie  on  the  surface. 

Of  course  it  is  well  written.  It  is  well  worth 
reading  for  its  simple  pure  English  alone.  His 
"natural  infirmity  of  homely  plain  writing,"  is  the 
way  Defoe  humorously  described  it.  The  charm 
and  force  of  simple  idiomatic  English  is  as  apparent 
in  Crusoe,  as  in  "Pilgrim's  Progress."  This  is 
doubtless  where  Defoe  learned  its  use.  If  so,  he 
learned  his  lesson  well.  It  has  been  said  that  in 
conversation  with  any  woman,  if  that  conversation 
is  two  or  three  times  renewed,  you  can  tell  whether 
she  has  read  "Robinson  Crusoe"  or  not  by  her 
skill  in  expressing  herself  well  or  her  failure  to 
do  so. 

Its  pure  English  is  an  attractive  feature,  but  this 
does  not,  of  course,  account  for  its  popularity. 
There  is  one  feature  of  its  composition  however, 
which  does  account  very  largely  for  its  charm.  This) 
is  its  realism,  using  realism  in  its  technical  and  be_st 
sense,  as  opposed  to  romanticism.  It  is  the  attempt 
to  describe  commonplace  things,  to  depict  things 
as  they  are,  and  to  give  them  a  new  meaning  and 
spiritual  significance. 

It  is  Defoe's  aim  to  produce  the  sense  of  reality  / 
and  illusion  of  truth.  For  this  purpose  he  uses  the 
best  means  to  produce  it,  namely,  current  memoirs 
with  the  accompaniment  of  a  diary.  He  says  in 
the  preface  that  he  is  only  the  editor  of  a  private 
man's  adventures,  and  then  he  adds  confidentially 


ROMANCE  WITHOUT  A  LOVE  STORY        33 

that  he  believes  the  thing  to  be  a  just  history  of 
fact,  uat  least  there  is  no  appearance  of  fiction  in 
it."  He  has  written  it  so  realistically  that  the  fic- 
tion is  hidden  and  the  reader  deceived. 

Defoe  had  a  marvelous  power  of  graphic  detailed 
narrative.  There  is  nothing  on  Crusoe's  island, 
which  we  do  not  know  and  see  as  well  as  if  we  had 
dwelt  on  the  island  ourselves.  Defoe's  love  of 
accurate,  detailed  description  is  indicated  by  the 
remark  that  Crusoe  is  the  only  novel  in  .which  the 
characters  get  hungry  three  times  a  day.  The  story 
was  immediately  accepted  as  a  true  story  of  a  real 
experience.  It  is  still  believed  by  many  to  be  so. 
No  child  ever  doubts  its  reality.  It  is  a  striking 
testimony  to  the  life-likeness  of  Defoe's  description 
that  the  invented  story  of  Crusoe  seems  quite  as 
probable  as  the  real  story  of  Selkirk.  To  grown 
men,  Crusoe's  island  seems  much  more  true  and 
real  than  half  of  the  actual  islands  they  read  about 
in  history.  We  feel  that  Crusoe's  experiences  are, 
or  could  have  been,  our  own,  while  we  read  them. 

Everything  seems  so  natural  and  probable.  A 
small  boy  once  said  to  Edward  Everett  Hale,  "I 
like  'Robinson  Crusoe'  because  he  doesn't  succeed 
in  everything.  It  is  not,  like  most  children's  books, 
where  the  good  boy  makes  everything  come  out 
right."  This  boy  had  an  observing  eye.  For  in- 
stance, Crusoe  cannot  make  ink.  It  is  long  before 
he  succeeds  well  in  his  pottery.  He  built  a  boat 
out  of  such  heavy  timber,  and  so  far  from  the 


34      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

water,  that  he  could  not  possibly  launch  it  after  it 
was  built.  He  is  constantly  beginning  things  in  the 
wrong  way  and  has  to  work  himself  out  the  right 
way.  He  is  not  a  prig.  He  is  human. 

I  once  tested  the  naturalness  of  the  story  by 
reading  it  to  a  little  ten-year  old  boy.  He  con- 
stantly interrupted  the  reading  with  questions,  as  to 
how  certain  situations  came  about,  or  why  Crusoe 
did  certain  things  the  way  he  did.  I  often  stopped 
to  try  to  answer  his  questions,  but  always  discovered 
that  it  was  labor  lost,  because  Defoe  had  anticipated 
every  question  that  the  little  fellow  asked,  and 
answered  it  in  the  next  paragraph,  following  the 
one  which  had  raised  the  question  in  his  mind.  De- 
foe has  a  genius  for  circumstantial  invention,  which 
is  the  rarest  of  gifts.  It  means,  as  William  Minto 
points  out,  that  it  was  necessary  that  Crusoe's  per- 
plexities should  be  unexpected  and  his  expedients 
for  meeting  them  unexpected;  yet  both  perplexities 
and  expedients  were  so  life-like  that  when  we  were 
told  them,  we  should  wonder  we  had  not  thought 
of  them  before. 

This  graphic,  detailed  description  of  the  con- 
crete experience  of  a  flesh  and  blood  man  is  one  of 
the  great  elements  of  power  in  the  new  literary 
method,  which  Defoe  had  discovered,  and  of  which 
he  was  a  master.  It  is  this  feature  in  Crusoe  that 
holds  the  boy  entranced  with  its  pages.  The  ad- 
vantage of  concreteness  to  a  work  of  art  may  be 
illustrated  by  two  little  poems,  both  written  on 


ROMANCE  WITHOUT  A  LOVE  STORY       35 

the  battle  of  Culloden.     One  written  by  Collins  for 
the  English  victors: 

How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest! 
When  Spring,  with  dewy  fingers  cold, 
Returns  to  deck  their  hallowed  mold, 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 
By  fairy  hands  their  knell  is  rung, 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung; 
There  Honor  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 
To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay, 
And  freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  there ! 

This  is  fine  poetry,  but  the  figures  of  speech  used, 
although  beautiful,  are  general  and  therefore  they 
do  not  move  us  deeply. 

The  other  poem  was  written  by  Burns,  for  the 
vanquished  Scotch: 

The  lovely  lass  of  Inverness, 

Nae  joy  nor  pleasure  can  she  see; 
From  e'en  and  morn  she  cries,  alas! 

And  ay  the  saut  tear  blin's  her  e'e: 
Drumossie  moor,  Drumossie  day — 

A  waefu'  day  it  was  to  me! 
For  there  I  lost  my  father  dear, 

My  father  dear,  and  brethren  three, 

Their  winding-sheet  the  bluidy  clay 
Their  graves  are  growin'  green  to  see, 

And  by  them  lies  the  dearest  lad 
That  ever  blest  a  woman's  e'e. 


36      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Now  wae  to  thee,  thou  cruel  lord, 

A  bluidy  man  I  trow  thou  be, 
For  monie  a  heart  thou  has  made  sair 

That  ne'er  did  wrang  to  thine  or  thee! 

This  makes  much  the  stronger  appeal,  because  it 
states  the  case  in  terms  of  an  individual  lassie's  heart 
and  her  actual  sorrow.  This  same  element  of  con- 
creteness  is  an  outstanding  characteristic  of  Crusoe 
and  largely  accounts  for  its  fascination.  Defoe's 
thought  is  not  handicapped  with  artificial  rhetoric, 
but  is  stated  naked  and  unadorned.  He  wrote  not 
language,  but  meaning.  Unless  he  had  acquired  the 
rare  habit  of  saying  clearly  what  he  meant,  his 
book  never  would  have  become  so  popular  with 
children  who  are  embarrassingly  honest  in  the  de- 
mands they  make  on  adults.  But  Defoe's  art  in 
realistic  description  is  after  all  a  question  of  method 
and  it  is  not  sufficient  to  account  for  the  permanent 
favor  which  Crusoe  has  won  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  CHARM  OF   UNCERTAINTY 

T?OR  the  real  secret  of  the  book  we  must  look 
-*-  deeper.  We  must  look  for  some  fundamental 
and  universal  human  interest,  which  it  exhibits,  and 
on  the  basis  of  which  its  appeal  is  made. 

Every  great  work  of  art  is  built  upon  and  con- 
trolled by  some  one  central  idea,  which  becomes  its 
organizing  principle  of  life,  and  accounts  for  its 
vitality.  Is  there  such  a  principle  and,  if  so,  what 
is  it?  The  formative  principle  around  which  Crusoe 
was  organized,  is,  I  take  it,  the  uncertainty  of  life. 
This  is  the  dominating  idea  of  the  book.  In  the 
preface  Defoe  says,  uThe  wonders  of  this  man's 
life  exceed  all  that  is  to  be  found  extant;  the  life 
of  one  man  being  scarcely  capable  of  a  greater 
variety."  It  was  the  variety  and  uncertainty  of  his 
fortune,  which  Defoe  regarded  as  the  main  feature 
of  Crusoe's  life. 

In  the  preface  to  the  "Serious  Reflections,"  he 
makes  this  still  more  clear.  He  says  "I,  Robinson 
Crusoe,  being  at  this. time  in  perfect  and  sound  mind 
and  memory,  thanks  be  to  God  therefor,  do  hereby 
declare  that  the  story,  though  allegorical,  is  also 
historical;  and  that  it  is  the  beautiful  representation 

37 


38      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

of  a  life  of  unexampled  misfortunes,  and  of  a  va- 
riety not  to  be  met  with  in  the  world,  sincerely 
adapted  to  and  intended  for  the  common  good  of 
mankind."  Defoe  here  clearly  intimates  that  Cru- 
soe exhibited  the  dangers  and  vicissitudes  of  his  own 
life.  His  own  experience  accounts  for  the  striking 
sympathy,  with  which  he  followed  the  fortunes  of 
his  hero.  There  is  in  it  an  autobiographical  note 
and  this  leads  a  man  to  speak  from  greater  depth 
of  feeling  than  any  imaginary  story  could  do. 

No  principle  is  more  calculated  to  make  a  univer- 
sal appeal  than  is  the  principle  of  uncertainty. 
"Leave  the  metaphysics  of  the  question  on  the  table 
for  the  present,"  says  Van  Dyke  in  his  "Fisherman's 
Luck";  "as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  plain  that  our 
human  nature  is  adapted  to  conditions  variable, 
undetermined,  and  hidden  from  our  view.  We  are 
not  fitted  to  live  in  a  world  where  a  +  b  always 
equals  c,  and  there  is  nothing  more  to  follow.  The 
interest  of  life's  equation  arrives  with  the  appear- 
ance of  x,  the  unknown  quantity.  A  settled,  un- 
changeable, clearly  foreseeable  order  of  things  does 
not  suit  our  constitution.  It  tends  to  melancholy  and 
a  fatty  heart.  Creatures  of  habit  we  are  undoubt- 
edly; but  it  is  one  of  our  most  fixed  habits  to  be 
fond  of  variety.  The  man,  who  is  never  surprised, 
does  not  know  the  taste  of  happiness,  and  unless  the 
unexpected  sometimes  happens  to  us,  we  are  most 
grievously  disappointed.  Much  of  the  tediousness 
of  highly  civilized  life  comes  from  its  smoothness 


THE  CHARM  OF  UNCERTAINTY  39 

and  regularity."  "Robinson  Crusoe"  lives  because 
it  is  organized  on  this  principle,  which  is  as  broad 
and  lasting  as  life  itself,  and  because  Defoe  works 
it  out  like  an  artist. 


CHAPTER    IX 

ROMANTICIZING   THE    COMMONPLACE 

I  T  is  the  principle  of  uncertainty,  which  roman- 
ticized the  commonplace  and  gave  charm  to  De- 
foe's description  of  it.  The  element  of  adventure 
makes  commonplace  things  uncommon.  Adventure 
is  the  charm  for  which  all  men  are  searching. 
Emerson  says,  "Man  dreams  of  palaces  and  ends  by 
building  a  woodshed."  Very  true,  but  only  half 
the  truth.  Is  it  not  worth  while  to  build  an  honest 
woodshed?  "Robinson  Crusoe's"  chief  merit  lies 
in  its  ability  to  make  the  building  of  a  woodshed 
seem  like  a  worth  while  and  poetic  performance. 
It  is  both  original  and  commonplace.  Defoe  had 
the  rare  and  great  faculty  to  detect  and  depict  the 
poetic  elements  in  common  life.  In  "Robinson 
Crusoe"  Defoe  made  the  same  achievement  which 
Thomas  Gray  made  in  his  "Elegy  Written  in  a 
Country  Churchyard,"  that  Dr.  Johnson  said  em- 
bodied a  sentiment  never  before  expressed  in  liter- 
ature. 

A  bill  of  particulars  showing  how  the  principle 
of  uncertainty  romanticizes  the  commonplace  is  read- 
ily furnished  by  Crusoe's  experience.  It  is  his  un- 

40 


ROMANTICIZING  THE  COMMONPLACE        41 

certain  and  varying  fortunes  that  give  him  a  true 
perspective  on  the  relative  value  of  things.  This 
is  the  distinguishing  doctrine  in  his  philosophy  of 
life  and  appears  repeatedly  in  the  record  of  his 
adventures. 

It  is  exhibited,  for  example,  in  his  soliloquy  over 
the  money  he  had  taken  from  the  ship  and  whose 
value  had  become  zero  in  his  island  prison.  He  un- 
expectedly found  himself  in  a  situation  in  which 
money  ceased  to  have  any  value.  To  him  an  orange 
was  worth  more  than  a  twenty  dollar  gold  piece  and 
a  few  kind  words  would  have  been  worth  a  score 
of  twenty  dollar  gold  pieces.  He,  therefore,  was 
led  to  inquire,  how  much  is  money  worth?  How 
much  is  a  man  worth  when  he  has  lost  all  his  money? 
The  idea  so  stimulated  him  that  he  expressed  him- 
self with  fine  scorn  as  he  smiled  at  the  money,  "Oh, 
drug!  What  art  thou  good  for?  Thou  art  not 
worth  to  me — no,  not  the  taking  off  the  ground; 
one  of  these  knives  is  worth  all  this  heap;  I  have 
no  manner  of  use  for  thee;  e'en  remain  where  thou 
art,  and  go  to  the  bottom,  as  a  creature  whose  life 
is  not  worth  saving."  "However,  upon  second 
thoughts,  I  took  it  away." 

This  is  a  prose  poem,  not  on  money,  however, 
but  on  the  discovery  that  apart  from  society,  money 
has  no  value.  In  point  of  fact  no  constructive  poem 
on  money  has  ever  been  written  and  for  good  rea- 
son. It  cannot  be  done.  You  can  write  a  poem 
on  real  things  like  work,  or  love,  or  courage,  or 


42      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

freedom.  But  money  is  not  a  real  thing,  it  is  only 
a  symbol,  an  artificial  social  tool.  Crusoe,  through 
the  memory  of  the  worship  commonly  paid  to  this 
tool,  was  betrayed  into  almost  spoiling  his  soliloquy 
by  adding  a  touch  of  human  weakness,  relieved 
somewhat  by  its  humor,  "However,  upon  second 
thoughts,  I  took  it  away." 

The  same  principle  is  exhibited  in  the  episode  of 
saving  the  things  from  the  wreck,  which  Crusoe 
sorely  needed  for  his  comfort.  This  is  the  most 
thrilling  episode  in  the  book,  excepting  the  finding 
of  the  footprint  on  the  sand.  Through  it  he  learned 
the  value  of  common  tools  and  supplies,  because  of 
the  ever  present  possibility  that  they  might  be  lost. 
The  uncertainty  of  securing  them  from  the  ship, 
adds  to  their  charm  and  value,  as  a  recent  writer 
expresses  it,  "Every  kitchen  tool  becomes  ideal,  be- 
cause Crusoe  might  have  dropped  it  in  the  sea." 

The  social  significance  of  this  episode  cannot  be 
overstated.  It  is  the  dramatic  statement  of  what 
is  typical  of  the  entire  book  and  one  of  its  chief 
contributions.  The  difficulty  Crusoe  had  in  mak- 
ing ink,  in  making  a  boat,  in  making  cooking  uten- 
sils, revealed  to  him  their  undiscovered  value.  The 
decisive  part  played  in  human  evolution  by  the  in- 
vention of  tools  is  one  of  the  big  romances  of 
history.  Its  value  in  human  evolution  is  pointedly 
stated  by  Clarence  Day,  Jr.,  in  his  suggestive  study 
of  "This  Simian  World."  He  says:  "A  tool,  in 
the  most  primitive  sense,  is  any  object,  lying  around, 


ROMANTICIZING  THE  COMMONPLACE        43 

that  can  obviously  be  used  as  an  instrument  for  this 
or  that  purpose.  Many  creatures  use  objects  as 
materials,  as  birds  use  twigs  for  nests.  But  the 
step  that  no  animal  takes  is  learning  freely  to  use 
things  as  instruments.  We  ourselves,  who  are  so 
good  at  it  now,  were  slow  enough  in  beginning. 
Think  of  the  long  epochs  that  passed  before  it  en- 
tered our  heads.  The  lesson  to  be  learned  was 
simple :  the  reward  was  the  rule  of  a  planet.  Yet 
only  one  species,  our  own,  has  ever  had  that  much 
brains." 

The  power  of  mastery  over  nature  added  to  the 
human  hand,  which  itself  is  the  best  of  tools,  by  the 
invention  of  other  tools,  cannot  be  calculated.  We 
take  for  granted  what  it  took  slow  and  painful  cen- 
turies of  effort  to  produce.  Centuries  of  discom- 
fort passed  before  we  enjoyed  a  glass  window  in 
the  house.  The  story  of  a  house  would  be  a  thrill- 
ing story  if  it  were  written.  Common  tools  would 
be  romanticized  for  any  one  who  comes  to  know 
their  history.  It  is  quite  worth  while  to  read  "Rob- 
inson Crusoe"  for  this  reason  alone,  because  the 
best  way  to  acquire  a  true  perspective  on  the  real 
value  of  things  is  to  imagine  them  absent. 

The  same  principle  is  still  more  effectively  ex- 
hibited by  Crusoe's  effort  to  stimulate  in  himself 
the  feeling  of  gratitude.  In  order  to  comfort  him- 
self, and  have  something  to  distinguish  his  case 
from  a  worse  one,  he  set  the  good  against  the  evil 
and  stated  it  impartially,  like  debtor  and  creditor, 


44      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the   comfort   he   enjoyed,    against   the   miseries   he 
suffered.     For  example: 


EVIL 

I  am  cast  upon  a  horrible, 
desolate  island;  void  of  all 
hope  of  recovery. 

I  am  divided  from  man- 
kind, a  solitary;  one  ban- 
ished from  human  society. 

I  am  without  any  defence, 
or  means  to  resist  any  vio- 
lence of  man  or  beast. 

I  have  no  clothes  to  cover 
me. 


GOOD 

But  I  am  alive;  and  not 
drowned,  as  all  my  ship's 
company  was. 

But  I  am  not  starved,  and 
perishing  on  a  barren  place, 
affording  no  substance. 

But  I  am  cast  on  an  island, 
where  I  see  no  wild  beast  to 
hurt  me. 

But  I  am  in  a  hot  climate, 
where  if  I  had  clothes  I 
could  hardly  wear  them. 


"Thus  I  learned,"  he  says,  uto  look  on  the  bright 
side  of  my  condition  and  consider  what  I  enjoyed 
rather  than  what  I  wanted."  Then  follows  one  of 
those  illuminating  bits  of  philosophy,  with  which 
the  reader  of  Crusoe  is  frequently  rewarded:  "All 
our  discontent  about  what  we  want  appeared  to  me 
to  spring  from  the  want  of  thankfulness  for  what 
we  have." 

No  finer  statement  of  the  philosophy  of  gratitude 
has  ever  been  made.  It  ranks  with  Carlyle's,  that 
"the  fraction  of  life  can  be  increased  in  value  not 
so  much  by  increasing  your  numerator  as  by  lessen- 
ing your  denominator."  Crusoe  demonstrated  Car- 
lyle's contention  that  happiness  grows  not  by  increas- 


ROMANTICIZING  THE  COMMONPLACE        45 

ing  one's  desires,  but  by  decreasing  one's  wants. 
It  is  a  question  of  the  relative  value  of  the  things 
one  has  and  the  things  one  wants.  A  man,  who 
through  the  adventure  of  uncertainty,  acquires  the 
capacity  to  distinguish  between  the  big  and  the  little, 
and  the  courage  to  act  on  this  knowledge,  is  in  a 
fair  way  to  become  every  inch  a  man. 


CHAPTER    X 

EVERY   INCH   A   MAN 

'TpHAT  is  what  happened  to  Crusoe;  that  is  how 
•*•  it  happened,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  the 
world  fell  in  love  with  this  open-minded  manly 
mariner  of  York.  He  is  not  a  man  given  to  the 
"luxury  of  grieving."  He  does  not  stand  and  cry. 
He  spends  no  time  bemoaning  his  misfortunes. 
Had  he  given  himself  up  to  self-pity,  he  would  have 
been  ruined.  Of  course,  he  was  not  without  fear 
and  discouragement.  But  this  is  nothing  against 
his  courage,  but  rather  in  its  favor.  For  there  could 
be  no  courage  if  fear  were  not  present.  Courage 
does  not  mean  the  absence  of  fear,  but  the  conquest 
of  it.  The  absence  of  emotion  and  sentiment  in  the 
book  only  serves  to  heighten  the  effect  of  Crusoe's 
courage. 

It  is  the  indomitable  courage  of  the  man  under 
desperate  circumstances,  which  is  the  first  thing  that 
charms  us  in  reading  the  book.  He  faces  the  future 
without  guarantees  of  any  kind,  and  this  is  the 
essence  of  courage.  He  is  not  the  type  of  man  who 
consults  fortune-tellers  to  pry  into  his  future.  He 
understands  to  begin  with,  that  they  know  nothing 

46 


EVERY  INCH  A  MAN  47 

whatever  about  his  future.  He  also  understands 
that  even  if  they  did,  it  would  damage  him  if  they 
told  him.  If  it  were  possible  for  a  man  to  know 
his  future,  that  knowledge  would  at  once  transform 
his  future  into  a  past  and  paralyze  his  will  for  pres- 
ent achievement.  This  is  why  Dante  in  his  "In- 
ferno" punishes  fortune-tellers  by  twisting  their 
heads  squarely  around  on  their  bodies,  so  that  as 
they  walk  forward  they  look  backward.  That  is 
the  poet's  picturesque  way  of  saying  that  a  man 
who  knows  his  future  has  no  future  but  only  a  past 
and  incapacitates  himself  for  making  effective  prog- 
ress in  the  present.  Crusoe  is  typically  Anglo-Saxon 
in  his  patient  acceptance  of  fate,  and  his  effort  to 
make  the  best  of  it.  Crusoe's  gospel  is  the  same 
as  that  of  Kipling.  It  is  the  gospel  of  work  and 
the  gospel  of  courage.  He  faces  heat,  cold,  hard- 
ship, sickness  and  peril,  which  would  have  shattered 
the  mind  of  any  man  of  less  sturdy  fiber,  but  which 
leave  him  unshaken  and  unafraid,  ready  always  for 
the  next  duty,  which  lies  at  hand- 

His  courage  led  him  to  take  the  world  "as  is"; 
not  to  run  away  from  it,  but  come  to  grips  with  it. 
He  blames  no  one  but  himself;  a  rare  habit.  Usu- 
ally when  a  man  succeeds  he  takes  the  credit  to 
himself;  when  he  fails,  he  puts  the  blame  on  Others. 
Crusoe  blamed  himself  for  his  failure  and  thereby 
discovered  both  its  cause  and  cure.  He  does  not 
face  dangers  with  a  grumble,  but  with  an  honest 
smile.  When  it  was  reported  to  Carlyle  that  Mar- 


48      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

garet  Fuller  said  she  had  decided  to  accept  the 
universe,  the  great  Scotchman  remarked,  "Gad,  she 
better."  Crusoe  accepted  the  universe,  not  in  a 
spirit  of  weak  acquiescence  with  it,  but  because  he 
knew  that  this  attitude  is  the  secret  of  progress  as 
well  as  of  personal  happiness,  for  if  you  want  to 
get  anywhere  you  have  to  start  from  where  you  are. 
There  are  plenty  of  things  to  find  fault  with,  espe- 
cially if  a  man  begins  with  himself,  but  to  face  life 
in  the  protesting  attitude  is  weakness.  To  be  so 
enamored  with  a  perfect  condition  of  things,  that 
one  can  neither  enjoy  nor  co-operate  with  the  pres- 
ent imperfect  one,  is  a  malady  Crusoe  did  not  have. 
He  saw  the  wisdom  of  making  honorable  compro- 
mise with  the  world,  and  then  trying  to  re-fashion 
it  as  best  he  could  with  patience  and  good  humor. 
This  is  the  key  to  a  correct  analysis  of  Crusoe's 
character,  and  explains  the  universal  verdict  of 
admiration  for  him.  His  courage  constitutes  one 
of  the  chief  grounds  of  the  book's  appeal,  for  it  is 
an  appeal  to  a  fundamental  instinct  in  all  men. 
However  much  or  little  of  courage  a  man  may  him- 
self possess,  he  always  admires  it  in  others.  There 
is  doubtless  no  character  in  fiction  more  than  Crusoe, 
who  has  a  better  right  to  quote  the  great  lines  of 
Henley,  as  descriptive  of  his  own  mental  attitude: 

Out  of  the  night  that  covers  me, 
Black  as  the  pit  from  pole  to  pole, 

I  thank  whatever  gods  may  be 
For  my  unconquerable  soul. 


EVERY  INCH  A  MAN  49 

In  the  fell  clutch  of  circumstance 
I  have  not  winced  nor  cried  aloud. 

Beneath  the  bludgeonings  of  chance 
My  head  is  bloody  but  unbow'd. 

Beyond  this  place  of  wrath  and  tears 
Looms  but  the  Horror  of  the  shade, 

And  yet  the  menace  of  the  years 
Finds  and  shall  find  me  unafraid. 

It  matters  not  how  strait  the  gate, 

How  charged  with  punishments  the  scroll, 

I  am  the  master  of  my  fate: 
I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul. 

It  is  this  conscious  attitude  of  courage,  which 
equipped  Crusoe  to  capitalize  his  experience  and 
acquire  internal  resources.  It  is  the  vast  fertility 
of  resource,  developed  in  him  by  his  brave  effort  to 
meet  the  difficulties  of  his  uncertain  fortunes,  which 
constitute  the  biggest  by-product  of  his  experience, 
and,  as  sometimes  happens,  it  is  more  valuable  than 
the  main  product.  His  perplexities  were  very  vari- 
ous. The  expedients  he  devised  for  meeting  them 
developed  him  into  a  self-reliant  sturdy,  all-round 
man.  He  was  sailor,  farmer,  mechanic,  hunter, 
cook,  business  man  and  philosopher  all  in  one. 

This  is  Robinson  Crusoe,  the  type  of  man  he 
was,  and  the  secret  of  his  popularity.  The  kind  of 
life  Crusoe  led,  with  its  effect  on  Crusoe  himself,  is 
rich  in  meaning  and  challenge  for  our  day,  because 
of  its  contrast  to  present  social  and  economic  con- 


50      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

ditions.  Very  frequently  I  have  tested  the  men  in 
my  city  audiences  by  asking  the  question :  How  many 
men  in  this  audience  do  now,  or  have  in  the  past, 
harbored  the  secret  desire  to  quit  your  city  life, 
acquire  a  farm  and  lead  a  free  and  self-sufficient 
existence?  Invariably  over  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
men  raise  their  hands.  "Robinson  Crusoe"  enables 
them  to  indulge  this  desire  vicariously  and  this  ex- 
plains why  new  editions  of  the  book  continue  to 
come  from  the  press.  It  is  the  unique  expression 
of  an  irrepressible  instinct  which  all  normal  men 
feel,  and  most  men  have  throttled, — the  instinct  urg- 
ing a  man  to  reject  the  restraints  and  complexities 
of  civilization  and  seek  a  mode  of  life  natural  and 
true.  When  this  instinct  surges  up  sufficiently  to 
disturb  his  acquired  peace  of  mind,  he  reads  a  book 
like  Carpenter's  "Civilization,  Its  Cause  and  Cure," 
and  then  he  resigns  himself  to  his  fate  with  the 
remark,  "What's  the  use?" 

Crusoe  thus  raises  an  inescapable  question.  He 
represents  the  type  of  man  produced  in  England 
previous  to  the  English  Industrial  Revolution;  what 
type  of  man  are  modern  industrial  conditions  pro- 
ducing, and  how  can  industry  be  so  organized  as 
to  prevent  the  denaturization  of  a  worker's  man- 
hood? The  meaning  of  Crusoe's  challenge  to  civili- 
zation is  the  subject  for  consideration  in  the  next 
Part. 


PART  II 

ROBINSON  CRUSOE'S  CHALLENGE  TO 
MODERN   INDUSTRY 


Yards  of  cotton,  tons  of  coal,  ingots  of  metal  are  not 
measures  of  civilization.  Men  and  women  ARE,  and  if 
you  tell  me  the  method  we  are  about  introducing,  or  hoping 
to  introduce,  would  strike  down  capital  to  one-half  of  the 
amount  employed  today,  but  would  lift  men  and  women  of 
Massachusetts  forty  per  cent,  above  their  present  level,  1 
would  say  all  hail  to  this  change.  This  is  a  true  civilization. 

— WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


PART  II 

ROBINSON  CRUSOE'S  CHALLENGE  TO 
MODERN    INDUSTRY 


CHAPTER   I 

GREATNESS   UNAWARES 

A  MONG  the  few  men  who  have  appreciated  the 
•*  contribution  of  an  indispensable  and  disre- 
garded element,  which  "Robinson  Crusoe"  makes 
to  the  serious  study  of  economics,  was  Frederic 
Harrison,  who  said  of  the  book:  "  'Robinson  Cru- 
soe,' which  is  a  fairy  tale  to  the  child,  a  book  of 
adventure  to  the  young,  is  a  work  on  social  philos- 
ophy to  the  mature.  It  is  a  picture  of  civilization. 
The  essential  moral  attributes  of  man,  his  innate 
impulses  as  a  social  being,  his  absolute  dependence 
on  society,  even  as  a  solitary  individual,  his  subjec- 
tion to  the  physical  world,  and  his  alliance  with  the 
animal  world,  the  statical  elements  of  social  phi- 
losophy, and  the  germs  of  man's  historical  evolution 
have  never  been  touched  with  more  sagacity,  and, 
assuredly,  have  never  been  idealized  with  such  magi- 
cal simplicity  and  truth." 

53 


54      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

It  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  supposed  that  Defoe 
Consciously  aimed  to  write  a  book  on  sociology,  and 
Mr.  Harrison  did  not  intend  to  convey  this  impres- 
sion. But  it  frequently  happens  that  the  author  of 
a  great  work  of  art  will  say  more  to  succeeding 
generations  than  to  his  own,  not  because  others  read 
new  meaning  into  it,  but  because  new  conditions 
invest  it  with  new  significance.  So  it  has  happened 
to  "Robinson  Crusoe."  The  book  has  acquired 
new  greatness  unawares.  It  enjoys  the  unearned 
increment  of  a  fresh  greatness,  acquired  by  subse- 
quent industrial  events,  which  it  did  not  anticipate 
but  which  it  challenges.  The  fact  that  its  contribu- 
tion to  sociology  is  unconscious  gives  it  enhanced 
value.  It  is  not  Defoe,  who  challenges  modern  in- 
dustry; it  is  "Robinson  Crusoe."  The  challenge 
lies  in  the  fact  itself,  for  which  he  stands.  The 
book  taken  by  itself,  as  Mr.  Harrison  suggests,  has 
a  profound  meaning  for  sociology,  because  it  iso- 
lates the  basic  elements  of  society,  and  dramatically 
portrays  their  significance.  But  when  the  book  is 
read  in  the  light  of  what  has  happened  since  it  was 
written,  its  enlarged  meaning  seems  like  a  new  and 
fresh  discovery. 

What  happened  since  it  was  written,  and  made 
this  work  of  art  to  be  also  a  big  human  story  with 
a  challenge,  is  The  Industrial  Revolution.  Crusoe 
is  the  typical  human  product  of  industrial  conditions 
in  England  previous  to  this  revolution.  No  thought- 
ful man  today  can  read  the  book  without  comparing 


GREATNESS  UNAWARES  55 

Crusoe  to  the  type  of  man  produced  by  modern 
industry.  Herein  lies  its  challenge.  If  we  place"" 
Ruth's  sickle  along  side  of  a  McCormick  reaper,  it 
is  quite  obvious  that  we  have  made  very  commend- 
able progress  indeed  in  this  line  of  manufacture; 
but  if  we  stand  Ruth  herself  beside  the  young  women 
who  attended  the  modern  reaper  in  a  recent  world's 
fair,  is  it  at  all  obvious  that  we  have  made  any 
progress  in  this  line  of  manufacture?  And  yet  the 
making  of  men  is  the  mission  of  modern  democ- 
racies and  the  acid  test  of  their  success.  Crusoe's 
challenge  concerns  the  human  factor  in  industry, 
which  is  its  heart. 


CHAPTER   II 

CRUSOE  AS  A  RIP  VAN  WINKLE 

/^"RUSOE  was  marooned  on  his  island  twenty- 
^^  eight  years,  and  absent  from  England  thirty- 
five.  It  is  not  without  significance  that  Crusoe 
landed  on  this  island  in  September  1659,  the  month 
in  which  the  English  Commonwealth  ended,  and 
returned  to  England  in  June  1687,  the  month  in 
which  the  Convention  Parliament  met  to  establish 
William  III.  It  is  the  exact  period  during  which 
the  second  Stuart  reign  defiled  the  English  Govern- 
ment, and  during  which  Crusoe,  had  he  been  free 
to  choose,  would  have  preferred  to  be  absent,  set- 
ting up  a  country  of  his  own,  in  which  he  was  king 
over  himself. 

When  Crusoe  returned  to  England  after  his  en- 
forced absence,  as  he  is  represented  as  doing,  he 
found  things  in  the  nation,  apart  from  the  Govern- 
ment, just  about  as  he  had  left  them.  His  home- 
coming occasioned  no  shock  or  thrill  except  as  his 
personal  feelings  were  stirred  by  his  effort  to  dis- 
cover whether  his  parents  were  still  alive  and  by 
his  joy  in  revisiting  the  scenes  of  his  childhood. 
The  social  and  industrial  conditions  continued  un- 
changed. There  are  many  short  and  some  long 

56 


CRUSOE  AS  A  RIP  VAN  WINKLE          57 

periods  of  history,  in  which  society  has  remained 
static,  because  human  nature,  left  to  itself,  resists 
change.  To  such  periods  one  may  apply  the  open- 
ing remark  of  Mark  Twain  in  his  commencement 
address  on  "Methuselah,"  to  the  effect  that,  "Me- 
thuselah lived  to  be  969  years  old,  but  he  might  as 
well  have  lived  to  be  a  thousand  years  old,  because 
nothing  was  doing." 

But  if  Crusoe  had  been  a  Rip  Van  Winkle  and 
returned  to  England  one  hundred  years  after  his 
story  was  written  in  1719,  he  would  have  been  as 
shocked  as  though  he  had  emigrated  to  another 
planet.  He  would  have  discovered  that  the  Eng- 
land of  his  boyhood  had  ceased  to  exist,  except  in 
his  memory,  that  in  its  place  had  arisen  a  new  Eng- 
land, more  changed  than  it  had  been  during  many 
previous  centuries. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  century  of  Crusoe's 
supposed  absence,  there  occurred  two  revolutions, 
more  influential  than  any  in  human  history  and  big 
with  consequences  for  human  welfare.  The  first 
of  these  revolutions  was  political.  It  is  called  the 
American  Revolutionary  War.  It  opened  a  new 
road  to  freedom  and  inaugurated  the  greatest  ex- 
periment in  democracy  on  a  large  scale,  which  had 
yet  been  tried.  It  was  the  brave  assertion  of  an 
equality  of  opportunity  for  the  self-development  of 
all  men.  It  had  its  beginning  in  a  band  of  courag- 
eous pioneers  who,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  previously,  had  adventured  into  a 


58      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

newly  discovered  continent  to  establish  "a  govern- 
ment without  a  king  and  a  church  without  a  prelate/1 
but  the  movement  fruited  into  fact  in  the  Revolution. 
It  was  a  boon  not  only  to  America,  but  to  England 
also  and  to  all  mankind  as  well,  the  significance  of 
which  is  still  an  unfinished  story. 

Its  inner  meaning  for  modern  industry  is  criti- 
cally important  and  has  never  been  more  accurately 
stated  than  in  the  brief,  dynamic  words,  uttered  by 
President  Lincoln,  in  our  most  sacred  building,  the 
plain  brick  building  in  Philadelphia,  in  which  the 
Republic  was  born.  "I  have  often  pondered,'1 
said  our  typical  American,  "over  the  dangers  which 
were  incurred  by  the  men  who  assembled  here,  and 
who  formed  and  adopted  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  of  the 
officers  and  soldiers  who  achieved  that  independence. 
I  have  often  inquired  of  myself  what  great  principle 
or  idea  it  was  that  kept  this  confederacy  so  long 
together.  It  was  not  the  mere  matter  of  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  colonies  from  the  motherland,  but  that 
sentiment  in  the  Declaration,  which  gave  promise 
that  in  due  time  the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the 
shoulders  of  all  men.'1  The  same  sentiment  which 
six  months  later  he  thus  expressed:  "This  is  essen- 
tially a  people's  contest  .  .  .  for  maintaining  in  the 
world  that  form  and  substance  of  government  whose 
leading  objects  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men, 
to  lift  artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders,  to  clear 
the  paths  of  laudable  pursuits  for  all,  to  afford  all 


CRUSOE  AS  A  RIP  VAN  WINKLE          59 

an  unfettered  start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of 
life." 

Simultaneously  with  this  Revolution,  occurred  an- 
other far  less  dramatic,  but  far  more  drastic  in  its 
effect  on  the  modern  world.  It  is  uthe  industrial 
revolution,"  which  is  still  in  progress.  It  was  an 
astounding  triumph  of  science  and  invention  and 
produced  a  swift  transformation  in  the  whole  aspect 
of  the  modern  world.  Its  real  significance  is  as  yet 
only  slightly  appreciated.  Lothrop  Stoddard  merely 
states  the  plain  facts  when  he  says:  "This  trans- 
formation was,  indeed,  absolutely  unprecedented  in 
the  world's  history.  Hitherto  man's  material  prog- 
ress had  been  a  gradual  evolution.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  gunpowder,  he  had  tapped  no  new  sources 
of  material  energy  since  very  ancient  times.  The 
horse-drawn  mail-coach  of  our  great-grandfathers 
was  merely  a  logical  elaboration  of  the  horse-drawn 
Egyptian  chariot;  the  wind-driven  clipper-ship 
traced  its  line  unbroken  to  Ulysses's  lateen  bark 
before  Troy;  while  industry  still  relied  on  the  brawn 
of  man  and  beast  or  upon  the  simple  action  of  wind 
and  waterfall.  Suddenly  all  was  changed.  Steam, 
electricity,  petrol  and  Hertzian  wave,  harnessed 
Nature's  hidden  powers,  conquered  distance,  and 
shrunk  the  terrestrial  globe  to  the  measure  of  human 
hands.  Man  entered  a  new  material  world,  differ- 
ing not  merely  in  degree  but  in  kind  from  that  of 
previous  generations." 

After   Crusoe   saw  what  had  happened,   he   no 


60      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

doubt  had  the  impulse,  in  his  role  as  Rip  Van 
Winkle,  to  take  the  next  boat  back  to  his  uninhab- 
ited island,  for  with  these  two  revolutions  there 
arose  also  a  fierce  controversy  whose  end  is  not  yet. 
The  two  revolutions  stood  for  ideals  diametrically 
opposed.  The  Revolutionary  War  changed  tKe 
political  status  of  man  from  that  of  a  servant  to 
that  of  a  freeman.  The  industrial  revolution 
changed  his  status  from  that  of  a  freeman  to  that 
of  a  slave.  It  inaugurated  an  irrepressible  conflict. 
The  debate  is  not  less  but  more  alive  than  ever 
before  and  will  not  end  until  a  reconciling  principle 
is  discovered  and  put  into  operation.  Nothing  is 
ever  settled  until  it  is  settled  right.  The  principle 
on  which  it  can  be  settled  right  we  are  on  the  verge 
of  discovering,  although  we  are  unexcusably  late  in 
doing  so.  To  state  this  discovery  is  the  aim  of  this 
book. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION 

T  OOKED  at  in  the  large,  the  industrial  revolu- 
*•*  tion  seems  to  have  occurred  swiftly  and  all  at 
once.  It  did  occur  more  suddenly  than  any  other 
big  event  of  its  kind.  But  nothing  is  wholly  uncon- 
nected with  the  past  or  unrelated  to  the  future.  The 
principle  of  Emerson's  great  poem,  "Each  and  All," 
may  be  accepted  as  a  universal  law : 

All  are  needed  by  each  one ; 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone. 

The  industrial  revolution  was  no  exception  to 
this  law.  Every  event,  like  every  man,  has  a  past. 
In  the  year  that  Crusoe  was  written,  1719,  the  first 
factory  in  the  modern  sense  was  started.  That  is, 
a  factory  in  which  the  motive  power  was  supplied 
from  outside,  human  fingers  were  replaced  by 
machinery,  and  men  worked  exclusively  for  wages. 
It  was  the  silk  "throwing  mill,"  erected  by  the 
Lombe  Brothers  in  Derbyshire.  The  name  implies 
that  it  was  imported  from  Italy,  as  it  was.  How 
John  Lombe,  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  stole  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  new  machinery,  is  a  thrilling  and  typical 
chapter  in  the  pioneer  story  of  the  factory  system. 

61 


62      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

This  was  one  among  several  heralds  of  the  com- 
ing change.  But  the  real  beginning  of  the  industrial 
revolution,  the  thing  which  gave  to  England  her 
nickname  "the  workshop  of  the  world,"  occurred 
and  became  effective  fifty  years  later,  around  the 
period  of  the  American  Revolutionary  War.  It 
centers  in  particular  about  the  inventions  of  four 
men:  Kay,  Hargreaves,  Cartwright  and  Watt. 

John  Kay  invented  a  new  shuttle  for  the  loom. 
It  was  mechanically  propelled,  reducing  the  weaver's 
labor  and  doubling  his  output.  It  made  possible 
the  weaving  of  cloth  wider  than  the  distance  between 
the  outstretched  arms  of  one  operator.  It  not  only 
dispensed  with  one  worker  at  the  loom,  but  enabled 
one  weaver  to  handle  the  material  supplied  by  six 
spinners.  By  Kay's  invention,  as  Carlyle  expressed 
it:  '"The  shuttle  drops  from  the  fingers  of  the 
weaver  and  falls  into  iron  hands  that  ply  it  faster." 

James  Hargreaves  invented  a  new  spinning 
wheel  and,  in  honor  of  his  wife,  named  it  the  "spin- 
ning-jenny." She  deserved  it.  He  was  a  poor 
weaver  and  while  waiting  for  a  supply  of  weft  from 
his  wife's  one-thread  wheel  an  accident  occurred. 
Her  machine  was  suddenly  thrown  into  an  upright 
position,  but  wheel  and  spindle  did  not  cease  to 
revolve.  This  flashed  on  his  mind  the  possibility 
of  driving  several  spindles  with  one  wheel.  He  at 
once  contrived  a  machine,  which  produced  the  same 
amount  of  yarn  in  the  same  time  as  had  hith- 
erto been  furnished  by  eight  machines.  His  sense 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION  63 

of  humor  and  fair  play  supplied  the  nickname, 
"spinning-jenny."  This  invention  was  built  on  the 
previous  invention  of  John  Wyatt,  who  made  a 
machine  able  to  spin  a  thread  of  cotton  for  the 
first  time  unaided  by  human  fingers.  It  was  in  turn 
built  on  and  improved  by  Richard  Arkwright,  a 
barber,  whose  machine  produced  yarn  of  greater 
strength;  and  also  by  Samuel  Crompton  a  poor 
weaver,  whose  "spinning  mule"  produced  yarn  of 
finer  quality,  which  could  be  made  into  materials 
like  muslin. 

Edward  Cartwright,  a  country  clergyman,  in- 
vented the  power  loom,  which  was  not  patented. 
He  believed  in  the  free  use  of  ideas.  The  weaving 
process  had  been  six  times  faster  than  the  spinning 
process.  But  Hargreaves'  invention  reversed  this 
order  and  made  weaving  to  be  the  lagger.  It  was 
now  necessary  to  increase  the  speed  of  weaving. 
The  alluring  principle  of  "keeping  up  with  Lizzie" 
applies  to  machines  as  well  as  to  people.  The  re- 
quired speed  was  supplied  by  Cartwright's  power 
loom,  which  made  possible  the  use  of  horses  and 
of  running  water. 

James  Watt,  the  son  of  a  shipwright,  invented 
the  double-acting  steam  engine.  He  first  discovered 
that  steam  could  be  used  to  work  a  pump.  But  in 
the  engine  at  first  contrived,  only  the  upward  stroke 
of  the  piston  was  acted  on  by  the  steam.  Watt  then 
made  his  marvelous  invention  of  a  double-acting 
engine,  in  which  the  steam  that  forced  the  piston 


64      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

up  was  condensed,  and  another  jet  of  steam  forced 
the  piston  down.  Watt's  genius  more  than  met  the 
indispensable  need  for  mechanical  power.  England 
went  "steam-mill  mad."  Boulton,  Watt's  rich  part- 
ner, who  characteristically  took  the  lion's  share  of 
the  profits,  remarked  to  King  George  III :  "I  sell, 
Sire,  what  all  the  world  desires — power." 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  inventions  were 
made  by  workingmen,  not  by  bankers.  They  came 
not  from  the  financial  but  from  the  engineering  de- 
partment of  industry,  a  fact  highly  significant  when 
we  come  to  consider  the  demand  of  workingmen  for 
an  opportunity  to  use  their  initiative  and  play  a 
larger  part  in  their  own  enterprise.  The  spiritual 
contribution,  both  for  good  and  evil,  made  by 
mechanical  inventions  to  the  evolution  of  society  and 
the  progress  of  democracy  is  a  story  which  never 
yet  has  been  told  effectively. 

Watt  soon  contrived  steam-engines  capable  of 
operating  all  kinds  of  machines  and  in  1785,  about 
the  close  of  the  American  Revolutionary  War,  steam 
was  used  to  drive  the  machinery  of  a  cotton  factory. 
It  was  the  application  of  steam  to  machinery,  which 
in  real  fashion  inaugurated  the  industrial  revolution, 
whose  second  and  great  period,  roughly  speaking, 
ran  from  1762  to  1840.  It  swiftly  transformed 
the  face  of  things. 

The  five  decisive  inventions,  which  have  contrib- 
uted most  to  the  creation  of  modern  civilization  are 
the  compass,  lens,  gunpowder,  printing  press  and 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION  65 

steam  engine.  These  are  the  big  five,  the  giants 
which  have  revolutionized  the  social  life  of  the 
world,  but  the  most  potent,  both  for  good  and  evil, 
is  the  steam  engine. 

The  advantages  of  the  revolution  were  obvious. 
Machinery  lowered  the  price  of  manufactured 
goods.  It  made  comforts  possible  for  the  many, 
which  once  were  the  privilege  of  the  few.  It  made 
the  necessities  of  life  cheaper,  provided  one  had 
the  means  to  purchase  them.  It  increased  the  wages 
of  labor.  It  developed  a  higher  degree  of  skill  of 
a  certain  type,  because  machinery  can  act,  but  can- 
not think.  Modern  machinery  is  not  the  triumph 
of  matter,  but  the  triumph  of  mind. 

The  disadvantages  of  the  revolution  were  equally 
obvious  and  in  some  respects  much  greater.  The 
machine  compelled  people  to  settle  around  it.  It 
created  the  modern  city.  It  spoiled  the  beautiful 
landscapes  of  England  by  its  ugly,  brutalizing  build- 
ings. It  crowded  the  workers  into  factory  towns 
and  increased  the  diseases  that  come  through  crowd- 
ing. It  lengthened  the  hours  of  labor.  It  made 
goods  so  fast  that  it  glutted  the  market  and  created 
a  new  kind  of  famine,  the  famine  for  work. 
Whately  Cooke  Taylor  says:  "It  vulgarizes  the 
product,  it  stultifies  the  workman,  it  deteriorates 
public  taste."  If  this  statement  is  true,  the 
machine's  chief  gospel  seems  to  be  the  gospel  of 
cheapness.  It  is  a  challenging  paradox  that  machi- 
nery multiplied  wealth  enormously  and  at  the  same 


66      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

time  multiplied  poverty.  From  1760  to  1818  the 
population  of  England  increased  70  per  cent,  and 
the  poor  relief  increased  five  hundred  thirty  per 
cent.  Wealth  and  pauperism  grew  side  by  side. 
The  system  of  producing  wealth  had  been  greatly 
changed;  the  system  of  its  distribution  had  not.  It 
is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  a  good  and  great 
man  like  John  Stuart  Mill,  who  saw  and  studied  the 
industrial  revolution  at  first  hand,  could  go  so  far 
as  to  say:  "It  is  questionable,  if  all  the  mechanical 
inventions  yet  made  have  lightened  the  day's  toil  of 
any  human  being."  Sad,  indeed,  if  true;  still  sad- 
der if  it  is  permitted  to  remain  true.  Was  not 
machinery  designed  to  harness  the  powers  of  Nature 
for  the  purpose  of  relieving  man  of  back-breaking 
toil? 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE  DESERTED  VILLAGE 

1T7HEN  Crusoe  left  England  as  a  youth,  seeking 
adventure,  the  prevailing  type  of  manufacture 
was  the  system  of  cottage  industry.  It  was  chiefly 
handicraft,  stimulating  the  worker's  initiative  and 
expressing  his  personality.  It  was  free,  each  mem- 
ber of  the  household  being  at  liberty  to  play  what 
part  in  industry  he  liked.  It  was  self-respecting, 
the  workers  associating  with  each  other  as  equals, 
joined  by  bonds  of  affection  and  tradition  rather 
than  by  bonds  whose  responsibility  was  limited  to 
barter  and  exchange.  It  was  production  guided  by 
the  family  spirit,  production  first  for  use;  second 
for  profit. 

At  this  period  the  work  was  entirely  domestic  and 
its  different  branches  widely  scattered.  As  described 
by  Mr.  James,  the  manufacturer  traveled  on  horse- 
back to  secure  raw  material  among  the  farmers.  It 
was  distributed  to  sorters,  then  to  combers,  and 
then  taken  into  the  country  to  be  spun.  Here  at 
each  village  he  had  his  agents,  who  received  the 
wool,  distributed  it  among  the  peasantry,  and  re- 
ceived it  back  as  yarn.  The  machine  employed  was 
still  the  old  one-thread  wheel  and  in  summer  weather 

67 


\ 


63      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

on  many  a  village  green  might  be  seen  the  house- 
wives plying  their  busy  trade,  and  furnishing  to  the 
poet  the  vision  of  Contentment  spinning  at  the  cot- 
tage door. 

It  is  a  pleasant  picture.  One  feature  of  it  is 
interestingly  described  by  Defoe  in  his  "Tour  of 
England."  "The  land  near  Halifax,"  he  says,  "was 
divided  into  small  enclosures,  from  two  acres  to  six 
or  seven  each,  seldom  more.  Every  three  or  four 
pieces  of  land  had  a  house  belonging  to  them  .  .  . 
hardly  a  house  standing  out  of  a  speaking  distance 
from  another.  .  .  .  We  could  see  at  every  house 
a  tenter,  and  on  almost  every  tenter  a  piece  of  cloth. 
.  .  .  At  every  considerable  house  was  a  manufac- 
tory. .  .  .  Every  clothier  keeps  one  horse  at  least 
to  carry  his  manufactures  to  the  market;  and  gen- 
erally a  cow  or  two  for  his  family.  .  .  .  The  houses 
are  full  of  lusty  fellows,  some  at  the  dye-vat,  some 
at  the  looms,  others  dressing  the  cloths;  the  women 
and  children  carding  and  spinning,  being  all  em- 
ployed from  the  youngest  to  the  oldest.  .  .  .  Not 
a  beggar  to  be  seen,  nor  an  idle  person." 

Another  feature  of  this  picture  is  described  by 
Thorold  Rogers  in  his  "Six  Centuries  of  Work  and 
Wages."  "Each  master  of  a  handicraft,  with  his 
family  and  a  few  apprentices  and  journeymen  about 
him,  plied  his  trade  in  his  home,  owner  of  his  simple 
tools  and  master  of  his  profits.  His  workmen  ate 
at  his  table,  married  his  daughters,  and  hoped  to 
become  masters  themselves  when  their  time  of  edu- 


THE  DESERTED  VILLAGE  69 

cation  was  over.  He  worked  for  customers  whom 
he  knew  and  honest  work  was  good  policy.  He 
supplied  a  definite  demand.  The  rules  of  his  guild 
and  the  laws  of  his  city  barred  out  alien  or  reckless 
competition  which  would  undermine  his  trade.  So 
men  lived  simply  and  rudely.  They  had  no  hope  of 
millions  to  lure  them,  nor  the  fear  of  poverty  to  \ 
haunt  them.  They  lacked  many  of  the  luxuries 
accessible  even  to  the  poor  today,  but  they  had  a 
large  degree  of  security,  independence  and  hope. 
And  man  liveth  not  by  cake  alone." 

Had  Crusoe  returned  to  England  as  Rip  Van 
Winkle,  he  would  have  discovered  that  the  domestic 
system  had  been  destroyed  by  its  deadly  enemy,  the 
capitalistic  form  of  production.  Cottage  industry 
was  gone.  The  factory  system  replaced  it.  The 
village  was  coming  to  be  the  deserted  village.  The 
farm  laborer  was  ''divorced  from  the  soil,"  as  well 
as  the  factory  worker  from  his  work.  Status  was 
changed  to  contract,  and  personal  relations  were 
replaced  by  "business"  relations.  The  workman's 
personal  interest  in  his  work  was  killed.  Whole 
classes  of  laborers,  both  in  agriculture  and  manu- 
facture were  thrown  out  of  work  by  the  new  machine 
industry.  The  factory  system  spread  everywhere, 
and  with  it  spread  dissatisfaction. 

The  change  from  the  old  system  to  the  new  was 
bitterly  resisted.  The  new  inventions  which  made 
the  factory  system  possible  were  savagely  attacked 
and  the  machines  destroyed.  Kay,  the  inventor  of 


70      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  new  shuttle,  was  mobbed  and  his  life  threatened. 
He  was  driven  from  England  to  France,  where  he 
died  in  poverty.  Hargreaves,  the  inventor  of  the 
spinning-jenny,  was  driven  from  his  native  town, 
and  wherever  the  jenny  was  used  serious  riots  oc- 
curred. So  common  became  the  destruction  of 
machinery  that  Parliament  passed  a  law  fixing  the 
death  penalty  as  the  punishment  for  its  destruction. 
This  action  of  the  workmen  seems  stupid.  They, 
like  the  rest  of  us,  sometimes  do  stupid  things. 
That  the  invention  of  machinery,  which  would  vastly 
multiply  wealth,  make  comforts  available  for  all, 
and  lift  the  burden  of  back-breaking  toil,  should 
have  been  greeted  with  bitter  destructive  protest 
instead  of  being  hailed  with  celebrations  of  joy,  is 
an  appalling  and  puzzling  fact.  It  is  an  indictment 
against  society's  intelligence.  But  so  far  as  the 
workmen  were  concerned,  their  stupidity  is  only 
apparent. 

For  the  workman's  action  there's  a  reason.    Bene- 
/      fits  of  the  new  machines  went  first  to  the  owner  and 
<y    then  to  the  consumer,  but  the  unemployed  wage- 
laborer  is  not  embraced  in  either  class.      Hungry 
stomachs  sometimes   do   not  think,   but  sometimes 
they  do.     The  issue  is  much  more  profound  than 
the    surface    facts   would   indicate.      Workmen    in- 
stinctively and  clearly  perceived  the  meaning  of  the 
change.     They  were  fighting  against  the  degrada- 
^      tion  of  their  position  from  that  of  a  self-supporting 
to  that  of  a  wage-earning  class.     They  wanted  to 


THE  DESERTED  VILLAGE  71 

preserve  their  status  as  free  men,  the  chance  to  use 
their  initiative,  the  joy  that  comes  from  personal 
relation  to  their  work  and  among  fellow  workers. 
They  would  have  been  willing  to  use  machinery  as 
an  aid  to  their  labor,  but  they  protested  against 
becoming  slaves  to  the  machinery.  In  the  old  system 
the  human  element  was  supreme;  in  the  new  the 
machine  was  supreme.  Their  bitter  protest  was, 
therefore,  not  merely  to  the  economic  damage  done 
by  the  new  factory  system,  but  to  the  domestic, 
moral,  and  intellectual  damage  as  well.  They  re- 
belled against  being  converted  from  men  into 
"hands."  They  wanted  to  be  the  kind  of  man 
Crusoe  was,  a  man  capable  of  writing  a  journal, 
and  engaged  in  the  kind  of  work  worth  writing 
about. 

The  same  kind  of  emphatic  protest,  which  greeted 
the  introduction  of  the  factory  system  into  England, 
is  today  greeting  its  introduction  into  India.  Under 
the  leadership  of  the  saintly  Gandhi,  ten  million  of 
his  followers  have  organized  the  non-cooperation 
movement,  whose  central  policy  is  non-violence. 
This  is  only  incidentally  a  political  movement  to 
secure  self-government.  At  heart  it  is  an  organized 
protest  against  Western  civilization.  The  flag  of 
the  movement,  very  significantly,  is  a  spinning  wheel 
on  a  background  of  red,  white  and  green.  This 
is  the  symbolic  expression  of  the  people's  conviction 
that  the  modern  factory  is  a  menace.  They  are 
urged  to  boycott  foreign  cloth  and  erect  a  spindle 


72      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

in  each  home.  Incessant  bonfires  of  foreign  cloth 
have  marked  the  movement,  not  because  they  are 
opposed  to  new  ideas,  but  opposed  to  Western  civili- 
zation on  fundamental  and  to  them  rational  grounds. 
That  our  industrial  civilization,  which  we  have  pain- 
fully created,  is  thus  resisted  as  an  evil  instead  of 
welcomed  as  a  blessing  is  disturbing  to  Western 
pride.  It  will  do  no  good  to  attempt  to  force 
machine-made  cloth  on  people  who  for  spiritual 
reasons  prefer  to  make  it  with  their  own  hands. 
The  challenge  will  be  more  wisely  met  if  we  inquire 
whether  our  industrial  system  is  as  good  as  we  had 
supposed  it  to  be  and  whether  it  may  not  need  some 
reconstruction. 

The  damage  to  society  and  to  manhood  from 
the  new  factory  system  is  effectively  described  by 
the  genius  of  Oliver  Goldsmith  in  his  "Deserted 
Village. "  The  workmen  no  doubt  chiefly  resisted 
a  damage  to  themselves,  but  Goldsmith  makes  it 
clear  that  the  damage  went  deeper,  and  was  a  pro- 
found concern  not  to  workmen  only,  but  to  the  whole 
nation,  for 

111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  men  decay: 
Princes  and  lords  may  flourish,  or  may  fade — 
A  breath  can  make  them,  as  a  breath  has  made; 
But  a  bold  peasantry,  their  country's  pride, 
When  once  destroy'd  can  never  be  supplied. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN 

/TTVHE  factory  system  was  affected  profoundly, 
-*•  and  injuriously  by  two  notable  events,  which 
riot  only  blocked  reform,  but  also  opened  the  door 
to  frightful  evils.  One  was  the  French  Revolution. 
Alarm  at  its  results  led  factory  owners  to  attribute 
a  sinister  political  motive  to  the  most  innocent  de- 
mand for  reform.  The  other  was  the  publication 
of  Adam  Smith's  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  issued  in 
the  year  that  the  American  Revolutionary  War  be- 
gan. A  book  may  be  as  big  with  consequences  as 
a  battle.  This  book  was  far  bigger.  It  was  itself 
a  decisive  battle  of  the  first  order. 

This  book  won  the  battle  for  economic  freedom 
and  created  the  science  of  political  economy.  Its 
author  fought  and  won  the  courageous  fight  for 
economic  freedom  from  the  pernicious  and  intol- 
erable restraints  imposed  by  the  middle  ages  on 
industry,  agriculture,  and  commerce.  It  was  a  serv- 
ice of  the  utmost  historical  significance.  Adam 
Smith  won  the  battle  against  tyranny  by  exhaus- 
tively demonstrating  that  social  harmony  and  the 
most  benefit  for  all  could  be  secured  through  eco- 
nomic freedom. 

73 


74      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

But  Adam  Smith  was  far  too  clear  a  thinker  to 
suppose  that  social  harmony  ever  could  be  achieved 
through  unchecked  freedom.  While  the  burning 
cause  of  his  life  was  freedom,  he  makes  it  clear  that 
exceptions  and  limitations  to  freedom  must  be  in- 
cluded as  part  of  his  doctrine.  He  did  not  mean 
freedom  to  do  as  one  pleases,  but  freedom  to  do 
good.  Long  before  he  wrote  his  book,  he  exhibited 
in  practice  the  kind  of  freedom  he  meant.  While  a 
professor  in  a  university,  the  corporation  of  Smiths 
at  Glasgow  prevented  James  Watt  from  exercising 
his  trade.  Adam  Smith  came  to  the  rescue  of  the 
great  inventor  and  secured  him  the  right  to  carry 
on  his  work  in  one  of  the  buildings  of  the  university. 

Smith's  aim  was  to  destroy  the  slavery  of  the 
dark  ages,  not  to  institute  a  new  slavery.  But  a 
new  slavery,  ironically  enough,  was  the  outcome  of 
his  teaching.  "Practical"  men  took  his  dominating 
idea,  divorced  it  from  its  qualifying  principles  and 
made  of  it  a  rule  of  conduct.  His  doctrine  of  eco- 
nomic freedom  was  transformed  into  the  go-as-you- 
please  policy.  It  is  quite  obvious  that  whenever 
there  is  inequality  of  condition,  unrestrained  per- 
sonal freedom  means  one  thing  and  one  thing  only 
— the  exploitation  of  the  weak  by  the  strong.  This 
is  what  happened.  Manufacturers  eager  to  secure 
cheap  and  docile  labor,  filled  their  shops  with  chil- 
dren subjecting  them  to  the  most  brutal  severity. 

The  acid  test  of  unlimited  economic  freedom  and 
the  heart  of  the  challenge  against  modern  industry, 


THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN  75 

is  best  exhibited  by  its  treatment  of  defenseless  little 
children,  who  constitute  a  nation's  biggest,  but  as  yet 
unrecognized,  asset.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  subject  to 
illustrate  in  detail,  but  it  is  essential  for  clarity  in 
stating  the  challenge  we  propose  to  face  honestly. 
The  illustration  is  taken  from  the  "Memoir  of 
Robert  Blincoe,"  written  by  a  Mr.  Brown  after  a 
careful  investigation  of  the  effect  of  the  factory 
system  on  health  and  morals,  and  narrated  in  Tay- 
lor's "Modern  Factory  System."  It  is  true  the 
condition  he  describes  existed  prior  to  the  writing 
of  Adam  Smith's  book.  Crimes  against  children 
have  never  been  confined  to  any  one  period.  But 
the  story  of  Robert  Blincoe  exhibits  the  logical  and 
actual  results,  whenever  economic  freedom  is  un- 
restrained : 

"Robert  Blincoe  was  an  orphan.  When  seven, 
he  was  apprenticed  for  a  term  of  fourteen  years  to 
serve  at  a  cotton  mill  near  Nottingham,  whither  he 
was  sent  with  a  large  number  of  other  children,  male 
and  female,  about  eighty  in  all.  The  story  tells 
of  the  ridiculous  hopes  purposely  fostered  in  their 
minds  and  the  treatment  they  should  receive  there, 
and  of  the  fearful  awakening  that  followed.  'It 
was  gravely  stated  to  them  that  they  were  all  when 
they  arrived  at  the  cotton  mill  to  be  transformed 
into  ladies  and  gentlemen;  that  they  would  be  fed 
on  roast  beef  and  plum  pudding — be  allowed  to  ride 
their  master's  horses  and  have  silver  watches,  and 
plenty  of  cash  in  their  pockets/  Alas,  for  these 


76      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

bright  young  dreams.  We  are  particularly  in- 
formed that  Blincoe  was  not  treated  in  this  mill 
'with  that  sanguinary  and  murderous  ferocity'  that 
he  experienced  in  others,  but,  nevertheless,  'from 
morning  till  night  he  was  continually  being  beaten, 
pulled  by  the  hair  of  his  head,  kicked  or  cursed,  as 
were  the  other  children.  .  .  .  Being  too  short  of 
stature  to  reach  to  his  work  standing  on  the  floor, 
he  was  placed  upon  a  block;  but  this  expedient  only 
remedied  a  part  of  the  evil,  for  he  was  not  able  by 
any  possible  exertion  to  keep  pace  with  the  machi- 
nery. In  vain  the  poor  child  declared  it  was  not 
in  his  power  to  move  quicker.  He  was  beaten  by 
the  overlooker  with  great  severity,  and  cursed  and 
reviled  from  morning  till  night,  till  his  life  became 
a  burden  to  him  and  his  body  was  discoloured  by 
bruises.'  The  ordinary  hours  of  work  were  four- 
teen, but  sometimes  extended  to  sixteen.  They 
were  occasionally  even  longer! 

"Blincoe  served  four  years  of  his  apprenticeship 
at  this  factory;  when  it  stopped  working;  and  he 
was  transferred,  with  a  number  of  other  appren- 
tices, to  another  one.  It  was  a  most  unfortunate 
change  for  him  and  them.  The  cruelties  that  were 
practised  at  this  next  mill  were,  as  the  biographer 
says,  well-nigh  incredible.  One  practice  of  the  over- 
lookers was  to  'throw  rollers,  one  after  another,  at 
the  poor  boy,  aiming  at  his  head,  which  of  course 
was  uncovered  while  at  work,  and  nothing  delighted 
the  savages  more  than  to  see  Blincoe  stagger,  and 


THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN  77 

the  blood  gushing  out  in  a  stream.'  When  Blincoe 
could  not  or  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  machinery, 
the  ruffians  were  accustomed  to  'tie  him  up  by  the 
wrists  to  a  cross-beam  and  keep  him  suspended  over 
it  till  his  agony  was  extreme/  'To  avoid  the  machi- 
nery he  had  to  draw  up  his  legs  every  time  it  came 
out  or  returned.  If  he  did  not  lift  them  up  he  was 
cruelly  beaten  over  the  shins,  which  were  bare,  nor 
was  he  released  till  growing  black  in  the  face,  his 
head  falling  over  his  shoulder  and  the  wretch 
thought  his  victim  was  near  expiring.'  To  lift  the 
apprentices  up  by  the  ears,  shake  them  violently, 
and  then  dash  them  upon  the  floor  with  the  utmost 
fury,  was  one  of  many  inhuman  sports  in  which  the 
overlookers  appeared  to  take  much  delight. 

"Among  the  most  singular  punishments  inflicted 
on  him  was  that  of  'screwing  small  hand-vices  of  a 
pound  weight,  more  or  less,  to  his  nose  and  ears, 
one  to  each  part;  and  these  have  been  kept  on  as 
he  worked  for  hours  together.'  .  .  .  'Sometimes  he 
has  been  commanded  to  pull  off  his  coat  and  get 
into  a  large  crib,  when  the  savage,  being  sure  of  his 
mark,  and  that  not  a  blow  would  be  lost,  used  to 
beat  him  till  he  was  tired.'  Nor  were  these  excep- 
tional instances  of  cruelty  practised  upon  one  un- 
fortunate boy.  Quite  the  contrary.  'All  the  punish- 
ments he  suffered  were  inflicted  on  others,  and  in 
some  cases  even  to  a  worse  degree  than  on  himself. 
He  even  considers  he  came  off  tolerably  welP — the 
story  says — compared  with  his  associates,  'many  of 


78      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

whom  he  believes  in  his  conscience  lost  their  lives 
and  died  at  the  apprentice  house,  from  the  effects 
of  hard  usage,  bad  and  scanty  food,  and  excessive 
labour.' 

"A  few  more  details  must  be  added,  which  will 
also  serve  to  bring  the  ordinary  arrangements  of 
the  factory  of  that  time  more  clearly  into  view. 
'The  apprentices  had  their  breakfast  generally  of 
water-porridge  .  .  .  which  they  took  in  the  mill. 
The  breakfast  hour  was  eight  o'clock,  but  the  machi- 
nery did  not  stop,  and  so  irregular  were  their  meals 
it  sometimes  did  not  arrive  till  ten  or  eleven  o'clock.' 
It  must  be  remembered  that  they  rose  at  five !  'At 
other  times  the  overlookers  would  not  allow  the 
apprentices  to  eat  it,  and  it  stood  till  it  grew  cold. 
'Forty  minutes  were  allowed  for  dinner,  of  which 
time  full  one-half  was  absorbed  in  cleaning  the 
frames.  Sometimes  the  overlookers  detained  them 
in  the  mill  the  whole  dinner-time,  on  which  occa- 
sions a  halfpenny  was  given,  or  rather  promised. 
On  these  occasions  they  had  to  work  the  whole  day 
through,  generally  sixteen  hours  without  rest  or 
food'  On  Saturday  they  commonly  worked  till  mid- 
night; and  sometimes  till  six  on  Sunday  morning. 

"  'Bad  as  the  food  was,  the  cookery  was  still 
worse.  It  was  no  better  than  hogwash.'  The  com- 
parison here  with  hog's-wash  is  no  mere  rhetorical 
figure.  'The  store  pigs  and  the  apprentices  used 
to  fare  pretty  much  alike,' — whilst — 'the  fatting 
pigs  fared  luxuriously  compared  with  them.'  These 


THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN  79 

'were  often  regaled  with  meal  balls  made  into  dough 
and  given  in  the  shape  of  dumplings,'  and  a  pretty 
story  (of  its  kind)  is  told  in  connection  with  this 
practice. 

"  'Blincoe  and  those  who  were  in  the  part  of  the 
building  contiguous  to  the  pigsties  used  to  keep  a 
sharp  eye  upon  the  fatting  pigs  and  their  meal  balls, 
and  as  soon  as  they  saw  the  swine-herd  withdraw, 
he  used  to  slip  down-stairs,  and  stealing  slyly 
towards  the  trough,  plunge  his  hand  in  at  the  loop- 
holes, and  steal  as  many  dumplings  as  he  could 
grasp.'  But  the  pigs,  'though  generally  esteemed 
the  most  stupid  of  animals,  soon  hit  upon  an  expe- 
dient that  baffled  the  hungry  boys;  for  the  instant 
the  meal  balls  were  put  into  their  troughs  they  vora- 
ciously seized  them  and  threw  them  into  the  dirt 
out  of  their  reach.  Nor  this  alone;  made  wise  by 
repeated  losses,  they  kept  a  sharp  lookout,  and  the 
moment  they  ascertained  the  approach  of  the  half- 
famished  apprentices  they  set  up  so  loud  a  chorus 
of  snorts  and  grunts  it  was  heard  in  the  kitchen, 
when  out  rushed  the  swine-herd  armed  with  a  whip, 
from  which  combined  means  of  protection  for  the 
swine  this  accidental  source  of  obtaining  a  good  din- 
ner was  soon  lost.' 

"Owing  to  these,  and  many  like  sources  of  sick- 
ness and  disease,  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that 
'numerous  contagious  fevers'  arose  in  this  mill,  nor 
'that  the  number  of  deaths  should  be  such  as  to 
require  frequent  supplies  of  parish  children  to  fill 


80      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

up  the  vacancies.'  Blincoe  'had  known  as  many  as 
forty  boys  sick  at  once,  being  a  fourth  part  of  the 
whole  number  employed  in  the  mill,'  and  'none  were 
considered  sick  till  it  was  found  impossible,  by  men- 
aces or  corporal  punishment,  to  keep  them  to  their 
work.'  It  became  necessary  to  bury  those  who 
died  in  various  churchyards;  not  only  to  find  suf- 
ficient room  for  their  bodies,  but  so  as  to  draw  less 
attention  to  the  great  mortality." 

It  relieves  the  indictment,  made  against  human 
nature  by  the  shocking  story  of  Blincoe,  to  remem- 
ber that  its  publication  aroused  horror  and  so  stirred 
the  public  conscience  as  to  inaugurate  the  beginnings 
of  reform.  But  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the 
story  rests  on  irresponsible  gossip  nor  is  the  product 
of  a  writer  seeking  a  sensation.  It  was  not  an  iso- 
lated but  a  typical  case.  This  is  abundantly  evi- 
denced by  the  sworn  testimony  before  the  First 
Royal  Commission,  whose  aim  it  was  to  interfere 
with  economic  freedom. 

A  case  in  point  is  the  sad  tale  of  a  little  girl  of 
ten,  whose  father  testified  that  she  died  of  over- 
work. On  the  day  of  her  death  she  had  worked 
all  day  in  the  mill.  She  was  unable  to  do  her  work 
and  a  little  boy  offered  to  assist  her.  On  her  way 
home  she  fell  several  times  from  exhaustion.  She 
reached  her  father's  door  with  difficulty  and  never 
spoke  afterwards.  She  died  in  the  night.  When 
the  Commission  adjourned  after  hearing  this  wit- 
ness, its  chairman,  Mr.  Sadler,  went  to  his  home  and 


THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN  81 

that  evening  wrote  the  pathetic  lines,  "The  Factory 
Girl's  Last  Day" : 

'Twas  on  a  winter's  morning, 

The  weather  wet  and  wild ; 
Three  hours  before  the  dawning 

The  father  roused  his  child; 
Her  daily  morsel  bringing, 

The  darksome  room  he  paced, 
And  cried,  "The  bell  is  ringing, 

My  hapless  darling,  haste!" 

"Father,  I'm  up,  but  weary, 

I  scarce  can  reach  the  door, 
And  long  the  way  and  dreary — 

Oh,  carry  me  once  more! 
To  help  us  we've  no  mother, 

And  you  have  no  employ; 
They  killed  my  little  brother — 

Like  him,  I'll  work  and  die." 

Her  wasted  form  seemed  nothing; 

The  load  was  at  his  heart; 
The  sufferer  he  kept  soothing 

'Till  at  the  mill  they  part. 
The  overlooker  met  her 

As  to  her  frame  she  crept, 
And  with  his  thong  he  beat  her, 

And  cursed  her  as  she  wept. 

At  last  the  engine  ceasing, 

The  captive  homeward  rushed; 
She  thought  her  strength  increasing — 

'Twas  hope  her  spirits  flushed. 
She  left ;  but  oft  she  tarried  ; 

She  fell  and  rose  no  more, 
Till,  by  her  comrades  carried, 

She  reached  her  father's  door. 


82      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

These  are,  of  course,  extreme  illustrations,  but 
they  are  here  employed  for  the  sake  of  the  principle 
at  issue.  Reforms  have  happily  modified  the  cruelty 
of  working  conditions.  But  until  the  principle  con- 
trolling human  labor  is  itself  changed,  there  is  no 
guarantee  that  the  details  of  its  application  will 
not  be  cruel.  The  challenge  we  are  considering  is 
concerned  not,  with  a  question  of  degree,  but  of 
kind.  It  is  not  the  degree  of  cruelty  more  or  less 
that  a  civilized  man  ought  to  humiliate  himself  by 
discussing,  but  the  kind  of  treatment  a  civilized  man 
deserves.  Crusoe's  challenge  to  industry  applies 
not  to  details,  but  to  a  basic  fact.  The  challenge 
deals  with  to-day.  On  this  issue  it  is  illuminating 
to  remember  that  it  was  a  period  comparatively 
recent,  which  called  forth  Mrs.  Browning's  thrill- 
ing poem,  "The  Cry  of  the  Children,"  and  also  that 
it  was  effective  in  arousing  feelings  that  the  crudest 
facts  had  failed  to  stir : 

Do  ye  hear  the  children  weeping,  O  my  brothers, 

Ere  the  sorrow  comes  with  years  ? 
They  are  leaning  their  young  heads  against  their  mothers, 

And  that  cannot  stop  their  tears. 
The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadows, 

The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  the  nest, 
The  young  fawns  are  playing  with  the  shadows, 

The  young  flowers  are  blowing  toward  the  west — 
But  the  young,  young  children,  O  my  brothers, 

They  are  weeping  bitterly! 
They  are  weeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free. 


CHAPTER   VI 

WHY   LABOR   UNIONS   AROSE 

'  I  VHAT  in  a  country  calling  itself  civilized  and 
•*•  maintaining  thousands  of  institutions  at  vast 
expense  during  centuries  of  time  for  the  express 
purpose  of  making  known  Christian  ideals  of  con- 
duct, that  nevertheless  it  should  have  been  neces- 
sary for  Parliament  to  pass  any  laws  at  all  to  pre- 
vent the  working  of  women  in  the  mines  and  the 
working  of  little  children  in  cotton  factories  more 
than  twelve  hours  a  day  seems  incredible  and  is  a 
humiliating  exhibition  of  greed  and  hypocrisy. 

But  this  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  After  such  laws 
were  passed,  the  manufacturers  either  refused  to 
obey  them,  or  made  them  ineffective.  They  were 
unpatriotic  anarchists.  Parochial  authorities  ap- 
prenticed thousands  of  children  under  their  control. 
Wagon  loads  of  children  as  young  as  six  years  were 
sent  from  London  and  elsewhere  to  work  in  cotton 
mills  fifteen  hours  a  day.  A  law  was  passed  for 
their  protection,  but  because  by  an  oversight  it 
omitted  to  mention  children,  who  were  not  appren- 
ticed, the  law  was  of  little  use.  It  could  be  circum- 
vented and  it  was.  This  is  typical. 

It  was  because  the  law  of  itself  failed  to  furnish 
83 


84      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

relief  from  the  barbarous  cruelty  of  the  go-as-you- 
please  policy,  that  the  laborers  found  it  necessary 
to  associate  themselves  together  for  their  own  pro- 
tection. Hence  the  origin  of  labor  unions.  But 
this  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  The  manufacturers 
secured  the  passage  of  a  law  making  it  illegal  to 
belong  to  a  labor  union.  Law-makers  are  usually 
humorless.  Here  is  a  bit  of  humor,  although  it 
must  have  been  unconscious.  This  law  made  it  ille- 
gal for  laborers  to  do  what  the  law  had  tried  to  do 
and  failed.  Trades  guilds  had  been  destroyed  under 
Edward  VI,  and  for  three  hundred  years  there  were 
none.  But  the  factory  system  made  them  a  human 
and  national  necessity.  They  met  at  first  in  secret, 
like  the  early  Christians  in  the  catacombs.  Perse- 
cution could  not  prevent  their  growth  any  more 
than  it  could  the  growth  of  the  early  Christians. 

The  responsible  reason  for  the  origin  of  labor 
unions  was  the  policy  of  manufacturers.  Rebellion 
on  the  part  of  workmen  is  always  and  everywhere 
in  direct  proportion  to  autocracy  on  the  part  of 
management.  If  the  destruction  of  machinery  by 
workmen  seemed  stupid  but  explainable;  the  use  of 
the  machinery  by  owners  was  stupid  and  criminal. 
Labor  unions  have  frequently  made  stupid  mistakes 
just  as  capitalistic  trusts  have.  They  have  some- 
times made  their  chief  concern  to  be  wages,  as  the 
management  has  made  its  chief  concern  to  be  profit. 
But  on  the  whole,  we  are  all  under  an  immense,  but 
unrecognized,  moral  debt  to  labor  unions,  not  only 


WHY  LABOR  UNIONS  AROSE  85 

for  the  preservation,  but  also  for  the  advancement 
of  civilization  and  decency. 

As  a  practical  factor  in  the  organization  of  in- 
dustry, both  management  and  men  attach  entirely 
too  much  importance  to  labor  unions.  This  is  a 
natural  danger  common  to  all  organizations.  An 
idea  begets  an  organization,  the  organization  has  a 
tendency  to  kill  the  idea.  A  labor  union  is  not  an 
end  in  itself,  but  a  means  to  an  end.  Both  sides, 
especially  the  management,  make  the  frequent  and 
serious  mistake  of  treating  it  as  an  end  in  itself. 
The  labor  union  is  a  symptom  of  the  disease,  not 
the  disease  itself.  The  only  way  to  get  rid  of  labor 
unions  is  to  remove  the  cause  of  their  existence. 
When  that  cause  is  removed,  workmen  will  not  care 
whether  their  union  goes  out  of  existence  or  not, 
for  its  aim  will  have  been  accomplished.  For  the 
management  to  try  to  get  rid  of  it  without  remov- 
ing its  cause  is  stupid  and  futile.  They  might  as 
well  try  to  fight  against  the  law  of  gravitation. 

This  attempt  is  like  trying  to  purify  the  water 
in  a  well  by  painting  the  pump.  It  is  like  the  attempt 
of  trying  to  prevent  an  explosion  in  the  boiler  by 
sitting  on  the  safety  valve.  It  will  not  prevent  the 
explosion ;  it  will  expedite  it.  The  unions  will  thrive 
on  persecution.  Christianity  owes  Nero  a  vote  of 
"thanks  for  the  free  advertisement  he  gave  it  by  his 
persecution  of  it.  The  management  may  try  as 
best  they  can  to  camouflage  their  purpose  by  stating 
it  in  terms  of  "the  open  shop,"  or  even  by  harness- 


86      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

ing  patriotism  to  their  purpose  by  calling  it  "the 
American  plan,"  but  this  deceives  nobody  but  them- 
selves. It  does  not  deceive  even  them.  It  not  only 
deceives  nobody,  but  it  subjects  the  management  to 
well-deserved  ridicule,  which  is  fatal  to  their  success. 

Mr.  Dooley,  in  the  following  brief  passage,  states 
all  it  is  necessary  to  know  about  the  open  shop  cam- 
paign and  the  humor  of  it  makes  further  argument 
seem  useless: 

"What's  all  this  that's  in  the  papers  about  the 
open  shop?"  asked  Mr.  Hennessey. 

"Why,  don't  you  know?"  said  Mr.  Dooley. 
"Really,  I'm  surprised  at  yer  ignorance,  Hinnissey. 
What  is  th'  open  shop?  Sure,  'tis  where  they  kape 
the  doors  open  to  accommodate  th'  constant  stream 
av'  min  comin'  in  t'  take  jobs  cheaper  than  th'  min 
what  has  th'  jobs.  'Tis  like  this,  Hinnissey:  Sup- 
pose wan  av  these  freeborri  citizens  is  workin'  in 
an  open  shop  f'r  th'  princely  wages  av  wan  large 
iron  dollar  a  day  av  tin  hour.  Along  comes  anither 
son-av-gun  and  he  sez  to  th'  boss  'Oi  think  Oi  could 
handle  th'  job  nicely  f'r  ninety  cints.'  'Sure,'  sez  th' 
boss,  and  th'  wan  dollar  man  gets  out  into  th'  crool 
woruld  t'  exercise  his  inalienable  roights  as  a  free- 
born  American  citizen  an'  scab  on  some  other  poor 
devil.  An7  so  it  goes  on,  Hinnissey.  An'  who  gits 
th'  binefit?  Thrue,  it  saves  th'  boss  money,  but  he 
don't  care  no  more  f'r  money  thin  he  does  f'r  his 
roight  eye. 

"It's  all  principle  wid  him.     He  hates  t'  see  men 


WHY  LABOR  UNIONS  AROSE  87 

robbed  av  their  indipendence.  They  must  have 
their  indipendence,  regardless  av  anything  else." 

"But,"  said  Mr.  Hennessey,  "these  open  shop 
min  ye  menshun  say  they  are  f'r  unions  iv  properly 
conducted." 

"Shure,"  said  Mr.  Dooley,  "iv  properly  con- 
ducted. An'  there  we  are:  An'  how  would  they 
have  thim  conducted?  No  strikes,  no  rules,  no 
contracts,  no  scales,  hardly  iny  wages  an'  dam  few 
mimbers." 

But  whether  a  labor  union  ought  to  be  or  not 
to  be,  is  not  the  question.  It  is  merely  an  effect, 
not  a  cause.  We  assume  that  if  employers  have  a 
right  to  unite  for  mutual  benefit,  so  have  the  labor- 
ers. The  truth  of  Condorcet's  statement  is  axio- 
matic; "Either  no  individual  member  of  the  human 
race  has  any  real  rights,  or  else  all  have  the  same." 
But  even  granting  that  this  question  were  debatable, 
the  real  question  at  issue  is  not  a  labor  union's  right 
to  exist;  it  is  rather  the  reason  why  it  exists.  If 
any  one  wished  to  destroy  it,  the  only  possible  way, 
as  well  as  the  only  right  way,  is  to  remove  the  need 
for  it. 

The  need  for  labor  unions  has  been  quite  obvious 
to  all  who  desired  to  know.  This  need  may  be 
stated  most  briefly  in  effective  language  by  quoting 
two  poems,  one  near  the  beginning  and  one  from 
a  late  period  of  the  factory  system.  For  poetry  is 
more  true  than  history.  History  gives  us  the  or- 
dered record  of  events;  poetry  their  inner  meaning, 


88      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

and  no  one  knows  an  event  or  fact,  until  he  under- 
stands its  inner  meaning. 

The  first  poem  is  a  popular  ballad  chanted  about 
the  streets  of  Norwich  and  Leeds  and  quoted  by 
Lord  Macaulay  in  his  "History  of  England."  Its 
words  are  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  typical  master- 
manufacturer  : 

We  will  make  them  work  hard  for  sixpence  a  day, 
Though  a  shilling  they  deserve  if  they  had  their  just  pay; 
If  at  all  they  murmur  and  say  'tis  too  small, 
We  bid  them  choose  whether  they'll  work  at  all. 
And  thus  we  do  gain  all  our  wealth  and  estate, 
By  many  poor  men  that  work  early  and  late. 
Then  hey  for  the  clothing  trade !     It  goes  on  brave. 
We  scorn  for  to  toyl  and  moyl,  nor  yet  to  slave  ; 
Our  workmen  do  work  hard,  but  we  live  at  ease, 
We  go  when  we  will  and  we  come  when  we  please. 

The  other  poem  is  by  no  less  a  genius  than  Shel- 
ley. It  portrays  the  natural  effect  of  the  attitude 
described  in  the  previous  poem: 

What  is  freedom?    Ye  can  tell 

That  which  slavery  is  too  well, 

For  its  very  name  has  grown 

To  an  echo  of  your  own. 

'Tis  to  work  and  have  such  pay 

As  just  keeps  life  from  day  to  day 

In  your  limbs  as  in  a  cell 

For  the  tyrants'  use  to  dwell, 

So  that  ye  for  them  are  made 

Loom  and  plough  and  sword  and  spade, 


WHY  LABOR  UNIONS  AROSE  89 

With  or  without  your  own  will,  bent 
To  their  defense  and  nourishment. 
'Tis  to  see  your  children  weak 
With  their  mothers  pine  and  peak 
When  the  winter  winds  are  bleak — 
They  are  dying  whilst  I  speak. 
'Tis  to  hunger  for  such  diet 
As  the  rich  man  in  his  riot 
Casts  to  the  fat  dogs  that  lie 
Surfeiting  beneath  his  eye. 


'Tis  to  be  a  slave  in  soul, 

And  to  hold  no  strong  control 

Over  your  own  wills,  but  be 

All  that  others  make  of  ye; 

And  at  length,  when  ye  complain 

With  a  murmur  weak  and  vain, 

'Tis  to  see  the  tyrant's  crew 

Ride  over  your  wives  and  you — 

Blood  is  on  the  grass  like  dew! 

Then  it  is  to  feel  revenge, 

Fiercely  thirsting  to  exchange 

Blood  for  blood,  and  wrong  for  wrong; 

Do  not  thus  when  ye  are  strong! 

Birds  find  rest  in  narrow  nest, 

When  weary  of  their  winged  quest  ; 

Beasts  find  fare  in  woody  lair 

When  storms  and  snow  are  in  the  air; 

Horses,  oxen,  have  a  home 

When  from  daily  toil  they  come; 

Household  dogs,  when  the  wind  roars, 

Find  a  home  within  warm  doors; 

Asses,  swine,  have  litter  spread, 

And  with  fitting  food  are  fed; 


90      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

All  things  have  a  home  but  one: 
Thou,  O  Englishman,  hast  none! 
This  is  slavery!     Savage  men, 
Or  wild  beasts  within  a  den, 
Would  endure  not  as  ye  do; 
But  such  ills  they  never  knew. 


Rise,  like  lions  after  slumber, 
In  unvanquishable  number! 
Shake  your  chains  to  earth,  like  dew 
Which  in  sleep  had  fallen  on  you! 
Ye  are  many,  they  are  few. 


CHAPTER   VII 

LABOR  AS  A   COMMODITY 


TTERE  are  all  the  elements  necessary  for  a  bitter 
-•-  •*•  and  continuous  civil  war  between  two  groups 
of  citizens  contending  as  rivals,  although  they  are 
natural  allies  in  a  common  cause.  And  a  civil  war, 
either  open  or  secret,  we  have  had  for  one  hundred 
fifty  years,  and  more.  The  monotonous  story  of  this 
industrial  civil  war  would  have  been  a  very  different 
story,  if  both  parties  to  it  had  been  wise  enough  to 
have  considered  causes  rather  than  effects.  This 
is  what  they  did  not  do  and  have  not  yet  done. 

The  use  of  steam  and  electricity  created  a  new 
world.  Modern  business  is  one  of  the  most  astound- 
ing and  inspiring  achievements  of  mankind.  The 
initiative,  energy,  courage,  and  romance  exhibited 
by  it  constitute  a  thrilling  story.  Modern  business, 
unlike  government,  appeals  to  hope  instead  of  fear, 
concerns  itself  with  "Thou  shalts"  instead  of  "Thou 
shalt  nots,"  and  it  is  yet  destined,  I  believe,  to  be 
the  saviour  of  civilization,  provided  it  has  the  capac- 
ity to  discover  and  practice  the  great  creative  prin- 
ciple, which  is  certain  to  distinguish  the  new  age 
upon  which  we  have  now  entered. 

But  modern  business,  during  the  entire  period  of 

91 


92       ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  industrial  revolution,  which  is  still  in  process, 
has  made  one  tragic  mistake.  It  displayed  marvel- 
ous ingenuity  in  the  invention  and  perfection  of 
machinery  and  the  formulation  of  efficiency  methods. 
But  it  forgot  the  chief  element  in  production,  the 
man.  It  attempted  the  impossible — to  play  "Ham- 
let" with  Hamlet  left  out.  It  has  made  the  stupid 
blunder  of  treating  labor  as  a  commodity. 

I  go  into  a  modern  factory  and  visit  first  the 
manager's  office.  I  see  on  his  desk  a  typical  book 
on  political  economy  like  those  used  in  all  colleges 
and  universities  until  recently,  and  still  used  in  most 
of  them.  I  open  it  and  read  a  passage  like  this: 
"Labor,  like  flour  or  cotton  cloth,  should  always 
be  bought  in  the  cheapest  market  and  sold  in  the 
dearest."  This  states  the  policy  on  which  the  fac- 
tory is  operated. 

Then  I  go  into  the  factory  to  search  for  this 
commodity,  called  labor.  I  cannot  find  it.  It  glares 
by  its  absence.  What  do  I  see?  I  see  only  men, 
lovers  of  sunshine,  hungry  for  music,  husbands  of 
women,  fathers  of  children,  for  whom  they  would 
sacrifice  their  lives  and  are  doing  so,  men  just  like 
the  manager  and  myself.  There  is  something  wrong 
somewhere.  What  I  see  in  the  factory  and  what  I 
read  in  the  manager's  book  do  not  agree. 

There's  only  one  thing  wrong;  the  statement  in 
the  manager's  book  is  a  lie.  Otherwise  it  is  all 
right.  Like  the  student's  answer  to  Professor  Hux- 
ley's question:  uWhat  is  a  lobster?"  The  student 


LABOR  AS  A  COMMODITY  93 

said  it  is  a  red  fish  that  moves  backward.  To  this 
Huxley  replied:  "Your  answer  is  entirely  correct, 
except  for  three  things ;  it  is  not  a  fish ;  it  is  not  red ; 
it  does  not  move  backward."  As  a  simple  matter 
of  fact  there  is  no  such  thing  as  labor  to  be  bought 
and  sold  and  never  was.  Labor  as  commodity  is 
pure  fiction.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  fact.  It  is 
the  creation  of  a  political  economist's  imagination 
which  manufacturers  have  tried  to  convert  into  a 
fact  and  failed.  We  have  been  led  to  suppose  that 
political  economy  is  an  exact  science.  Now  we 
have  discovered  that  we  have  been  deceived.  When 
a  laborer  comes  to  the  factory  in  the  morning,  does 
he  carry  pounds  or  yards  of  labor  to  sell  as  a  com- 
modity? No,  he  comes  empty  handed;  he  brings 
only  himself.  We  have,  then,  no  such  commodity 
as  labor;  we  have  only  a  man  who  is  willing  to 
labor;  a  very  different  proposition.  As  soon  as  you  I 
join  a  man  and  his  labor  together,  you  are  on  new  I 
ground  and  have  a  new  standard  of  values.  You  \ 
are  handling  not  a  commodity,  but  a  living  man, 
who  requires  an  altogether  different  treatment. 

The  false  conception  of  labor  as  a  commodity, 
transformed  a  man  into  "a  hand."  The  machine 
tended  to  make  the  worker  a  part  of  it;  to  reduce 
him  to  a  cog  in  the  wheel.  The  workman  was 
treated  as  the  one  bit  of  machinery  not  yet  invented. 
Man  as  a  machine  is  clearly  portrayed  in  Adam 
Smith's  description  of  pin-making,  as  practiced  in 
his  day:  "One  man  draws  out  the  wire;  another 


94      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

straightens  it;  a  third  cuts  it;  a  fourth  points  it; 
a  fifth  grinds  it  at  the  top  for  receiving  the  head; 
to  make  the  head  requires  two  or  three  distinct 
operations;  to  put  it  on  is  a  peculiar  business;  to 
whiten  the  pin  is  another;  it  is  even  a  trade  by  itself 
to  put  them  into  the  paper;  and  the  important 
business  of  making  a  pin  is,  in  this  manner,  divided 
into  about  eighteen  distinct  operations,  which,  in 
some  manufactories  are  all  performed  by  distinct 
hands." 

The  eighteen  manual  operations  here  described 
were  decreased  just  as  the  machinery  was  invented. 
Mrs.  Browning  said  that  in  her  day  it  took  seven 
men  to  make  a  pin.  The  damage  to  the  man  him- 
self involved  in  the  process  of  his  playing  the  part 
of  a  cog  in  a  wheel  has  never  been  better  stated 
than  by  Ruskin,  when  he  wrote:  "We  have  much 
studied  and  much  perfected  of  late  the  great  civil- 
ized invention  of  the  division  of  labor,  only  we 
give  it  a  false  name.  It  is  not,  truly  speaking,  the 
labor  that  is  divided,  but  the  men— divided  into  the 
mere  segments  of  men — broken  into  small  frag- 
ments and  crumbs  of  life ;  so  that  all  the  little  pieces 
of  intelligence  that  are  left  in  a  man  are  not  enough 
to  make  a  pin  or  the  head  of  a  nail.  Now  it  is  a 
good  and  desirable  thing,  truly,  to  make  many  pins 
in  a  day;  but  if  we  could  only  see  with  what  crystal 
sand  their  points  were  polished — sand  of  human 
souls,  much  to  be  magnified  before  it  can  be  dis- 
cerned for  what  it  is — we  should  think  there  might 


LABOR  AS  A  COMMODITY  95 

be  some  loss  in  it  also.  And  the  great  cry  that 
rises  from  all  our  manufacturing  cities,  louder  than 
their  furnace-blast,  is  all  in  very  deed  tor  this: 
that  we  manufacture  everything  there  except  men; 
we  blanch  cotton,  and  strengthen  steel,  and  refine 
sugar,  and  shape  pottery;  but  to  brighten,  to 
strengthen,  to  refine,  or  to  form  a  single  living 
spirit,  never  enters  into  our  estimate  of  advan* 
tages." 

The  making  of  men  as  well  as  pins  and  shoes 
does  not  seem  to  be  included  in  a  factory's  program. 
The  distance  between  stupidity  and  crime  is  short. 
The  treatment  of  man  as  a  commodity  is  not  only 
a  stupid  blunder,  but  a  criminal  blunder.  After 
classifying  souls  with  flour  and  cotton  cloth,  the 
next  step  is  to  sell  them  along  with  the  other  com- 
modities. And  to  sell  souls  is  nothing  short  of  a 
crime.  In  the  last  book  of  the  Christian  Bible  is 
a  fiery  and  dramatic  passage,  which  suggests  that 
this  is  an  ancient  custom  in  the  commerce  of  cities. 
The  passage  sounds  as  modern  as  if  the  Apostle 
John  had  written  it  for  New  York  or  Chicago.  He 
says:  "Alas,  alas,  thou  great  city,  O  Babylon,  the 
mighty  city!  For  in  one  short  hour  thy  doom  has 
come !  And  the  merchants  of  the  earth  weep  aloud 
and  lament  over  her,  because  now  there  is  no  sale 
for  their  cargoes — Cargoes  of  gold  and  silver,  Of 
jewels  and  pearls,  Of  fine  linen,  purple  and  silk,  and 
of  scarlet  stuff;  All  kinds  of  rare  woods,  and  all 
kinds  of  goods  in  ivory  and  in  very  costly  wood,  in 


96      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

bronze,  steel  and  marble.  Also  cinnamon  and  amo- 
mum;  Odours  to  burn  an  incense  or  for  perfume; 
frankincense,  wine,  oil;  fine  flour,  wheat,  cattle  and 
sheep;  horses  and  carriages  and  slaves;  and  the 
souls  of  men." 

The  whole  of  modern  industry  has  been  organ- 
ized on  the  basis  of  this  falsehood.  Until  this 
falsehood  is  removed,  there  can  be  no  hope  of  peace 
in  the  industrial  world  and  should  be  none. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE   RIGHT  TO   GET   DRUNK 

/TTSHEREFORE,  while  it  may  be  unexpected,  it 
is  not  at  all  surprising  that  workmen  turn  to 
drink  as  their  chief  comfort.  It  is  the  natural  con- 
sequence of  exhausting  labor  under  degrading  con- 
ditions. The  rum  shop  keepers  of  Australia,  fully 
appreciated  the  fact  when  they  violently  opposed 
the  reduction  of  the  laboring  day  to  eight  hours. 
The  workman's  craving  for  drink  decreases  as  im- 
provement in  his  condition  increases. 

A  vivid  and  humorous  account  of  workmen's 
amusements  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, by  one  of  their  own  number,  and  quoted  in 
"Progress  of  the  Working  Classes,"  by  Ludlow 
and  Jones,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  this  fact.  It 
says:  "Large  numbers  of  working  people  attended 
fairs  and  wakes,  at  the  latter  of  which  jumping  in 
sacks,  climbing  greased  poles,  grinning  through 
horse-collars  for  tobacco,  hunting  pigs  with  soaped 
tails,  were  the  choicest  diversions.  .  .  .  An  almost 
general  unchastity  prevailed.  .  .  .  But  the  drink 
was  the  mainspring  of  enjoyment.  When  Saturday 
evening  came,  indulgences  began  which  continued 

97 


98      ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

till  Sunday  evening.  Fiddles  were  to  be  heard  on 
all  sides,  and  limp-looking  men  and  pale-faced 
women  thronged  the  public-houses,  and  reeled  and 
jigged  till  they  were  turned,  drunk  and  riotous,  into 
the  streets  at  most  unseasonable  hours.  On  the 
Sunday  morning  the  public-houses  were  again 
thronged,  that  the  thirst  following  the  indulgence 
of  the  night  might  be  quenched.  When  church  hour 
approached,  however,  the  churchwardens,  with  long 
staves  tipped  with  silver,  sallied  forth,  and  seized 
all  the  drunken  and  unkempt  upon  whom  they  could 
lay  their  hands,  and  these,  being  carefully  lodged 
in  a  pew  provided  for  them,  were  left  there  to 
enjoy  the  sermon,  whilst  their  captors  usually  ad- 
journed to  some  tavern  near  at  hand  for  the  pur- 
pose of  rewarding  themselves  with  a  glass  or  two 
for  the  important  services  they  had  rendered  to 
morality  and  religion." 

It  would  be  more  comfortable  if  we  ended  our 
investigation  one  hundred  years  from  the  present. 
But  it  will  be  more  profitable  if  we  courageously 
face  the  facts  of  today.  The  same  type  of  condi- 
tions persists  today;  in  some  respects  not  to  the 
same  degree,  in  other  respects,  aggravated  by  the 
perfection  of  mechanics. 

Recently  I  visited  one  of  the  pig-killing  institu- 
tions of  Chicago.  The  pigs  enter  the  factory  in 
blocks  on  a  large  revolving  wheel,  head  down. 
They  slide  off  on  roller  tracks  in  quick  succession. 
There  is  no  time  to  be  lost  in  Chicago.  Men  are 


THE  RIGHT  TO  GET  DRUNK  99 

stationed  along  this  track  in  close  proximity.  As 
the  pigs  ride  rapidly  by,  each  man  does  something 
to  it,  one  to  his  throat,  one  to  his  internals,  one 
to  his  hind  legs,  one  to  his  front  legs,  one  to  his 
back;  each  man  to  his  own  piece  of  the  pig.  When 
the  pig  gets  through  running  this  gauntlet  there  is 
not  much  of  a  pig  left,  and  when  the  men  get 
through  a  day  with  the  pigs,  there  is  not  much  of 
a  man  left  either. 

When  the  men  finish  their  day's  work,  is  it  any 

wonder  they  get "Well,"  I  asked  my  guide 

how  many  of  the  men  got  drunk?  He  answered 
"About  ninety  per  cent."  "You  are  putting  it  low, 
aren't  you?"  I  asked.  "If  I  worked  in  your  factory 
I  would  help  raise  it  to  a  hundred  per  cent.  I 
would  insist  that  my  right  to  get  drunk  be  nom- 
inated in  the  bond  and  contract.  That  man  standing 
there,  bespattered  with  blood  and  dirt  all  day  long 
doing  nothing  but  stick  pigs,  he  will  go  insane  any- 
way in  two  or  three  years.  He  might  as  well  have 
some  fun  getting  drunk,  before  he  goes  insane. 
Every  night  in  drink  he  can  escape  into  freedom  and 
indulge  a  glorious  imagination.  I  have  never  been 
drunk,  but  I  suppose  this  is  what  happens." 

Does  my  reader  think  humor  is  out  of  place 
here?  This  is  not  humor;  it  is  bitter  irony.  The 
question  at  issue  is,  shall  we  give  precedence  to 
pigs  or  men?  If  anyone  thinks  the  irony  can  be 
made  too  bitter  or  the  issue  overstated,  I  ask  him 
to  read  this  description  of  the  pig-killer,  written 


100    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

by  Herbert  Quick  in  his  "Broken  Lance."  His 
friends  Olive  and  Morgan  go  in  search  for  him. 
He  had  been  a  minister.  He  is  a  refined  scholar 
and  social  reformer.  They  find  him  in  this  posi- 
tion, which  he  temporarily  occupies.  The  situation 
gives  you  the  perspective  you  would  get  if  you  "put 
yourself  in  his  place" : 

"What  is  that  terrible  noise?"  asked  Olive  again, 
as  the  mingled  screams  of  piled-up  agonies  pierced 
their  ears  nearer  and  keener. 

"You'll  soon  see,  ma'am,"  said  the  guide,  as  he 
stepped  off  upon  the  hog-killing  floor.  "Here  it  is, 


ma'am." 


"At  first  the  steam  and  the  hurrying  confusion  of 
men  blurred  the  interior,  so  that  all  was  indistinct. 
And  then  they  saw.  Somewhere  back  of  the  men, 
and  below  the  floor,  was  the  source  whence  the 
sound  came.  Dimly,  like  a  moving  impressionistic 
painting  of  some  fearful  engine,  slowly  rotated  a 
great  wheel,  and  from  it  seemed  to  come  these 
sounds,  which  now  could  be  separated  from  each 
other  in  culminating  cries  of  anguish,  as  if  a  thou- 
sand steel  traps  were  snapping  on  creatures  penned 
up  for  torture.  As  their  eyes  cleared,  they  saw 
that  the  dangling  forms  were  those  of  swine,  and 
realized  that  the  trap  was  closing,  every  second,  on 
a  helpless  animal;  that  theirs  were  the  cries  screamed 
so  dolefully  forth,  hour  after  hour,  from  the  build- 
ing, as  the  poor  beasts  felt  the  clutch  of  the  traps 
upon  their  legs,  and  were  hoisted  with  diabolical 


THE  RIGHT  TO  GET  DRUNK        ,101 


deliberation,  in  a  succession  of  pjtile§g  tfa 
and  carried,  heads  down,  on  the  revolving  Ferris 
wheel,  on  to  the  place  where  each  scream  went 
suddenly  broken  and  choked  as  something  happened 
— something  after  which  a  spouting  and  reeking 
throat  swung  over  toward  the  steaming  tank,  await- 
ing immersion  in  which  hung  a  close-packed  cluster 
of  black  carcasses,  their  blood-choked  coughings  and 
dying  convulsions  growing  less  and  less,  until  they 
went  rolling  from  their  gyves  of  death  into  the 
scalding  water. 

"The  floor  was  dark  with  clotted  and  diluted 
blood,  and  blood  spread  in  a  coagulating  mass  of 
viscous  red,  mottled  with  splotches  of  pink  foam 
about  the  feet  of  the  man  who  stood  in  front  of 
the  line  of  victims,  which  filed  before  him  in  in- 
verted helplessness.  As  each  one  passed  him,  he 
seized  it  by  the  forefeet,  spread  the  legs  apart  so 
as  to  expose  the  broad  black  throat,  and  then,  with 
a  single  thrust,  as  skillful  as  the  finest  pass  of  a 
swordsman,  his  long  keen  knife  went  straight  to 
the  artery,  and  the  spurt  of  crimson  as  it  was 
withdrawn  went  unheeded  over  the  man's  clothes 
from  waist  to  feet,  as  he  mechanically  pushed  the 
slain  brute  by,  and  automatically  reached  for  an- 
other— and  all  the  time  the  great  wheel  rotated,  and 
out  from  below  and  behind  came  the  volume  of 
tortured  screams,  each  moment  bringing  more  and 
more  throats  before  him  for  the  knife.  Hour  after 
hour,  day  after  day  he  stood  there,  the  reek  of  gore 


102    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

In-  His:  nostrils,- the  screech  of  death  in  his  ears — 
the  king  of  slaughter,  surrounded  by  his  sanguinary 
helpers,  who,  with  machine  and  cleaver  and  knife, 
urged  on  by  shouted  command  and  competing  en- 
ginery, tore  heads  from  bodies,  ripped  out  bowels, 
dismembered  frames,  and  sent  off  to  some  room 
where  they  hung  cooling  in  long  rows,  the  clean- 
scraped  and  eviscerated  creatures  brought  here  in 
thousands  from  green  fields  and  pastures.  But  the 
central  figure,  the  monarch  of  horrors  to  Olive's 
eyes,  was  the  man  with  the  knife,  who,  with  the 
machine-like  thrust,  second  by  second  smote  from 
its  rock  of  flesh  the  fountain  of  blood,  and  stood 
like  an  embodied  emblem  of  carnage,  in  steam  and 
reek  and  expiring  clamor,  a  red  angel  of  death, 
dripping  gore  from  every  finger,  and  bathed  from 
head  to  foot  in  the  tide  of  butchery. 

"The  woman  stood  gazing  at  him  in  a  dreadful 
fascination,  and  the  real  meaning  of  the  scene  grew 
clearer  and  clearer  through  the  steam  and  con- 
fusion. He  was  straight  and  tall,  and  as  he  did  his 
horrid  work,  she  noted  in  him  a  devilish  adjustment 
of  means  to  end  in  every  motion  and  turn  of  wrist 
and  arm  and  torso  which  reminded  her  dimly  of  such 
exhibitions  of  graceful  motion  and  strength  as  fenc- 
ing and  club-swinging — a  strange  mingling  of  grace 
and  diabolism.  In  a  way  he  seemed  almost  beauti- 
ful to  her.  And  then  a  sickening  thing  happened — 
he  looked  at  her.  It  was  a  mere  glance,  at  first, 
a  turning  of  the  head  in  the  easy  double  attention 


THE  RIGHT  TO  GET  DRUNK  103 

of  the  skilled  workman,  and  then — he  stood,  his 
dreadful  work  accumulating  before  him,  and  looked 
her  straight  in  the  face  as  if  he  knew  her;  and— 
unspeakable  thought ! — the  face  seemed  that  of  one 
she  knew  and  loved  as  the  most  gentle  being  in  the 
world.  The  eyes  were  blue,  the  hair,  dark  with 
sweat,  or  worse,  was  curly,  and  he  seemed  to  know 
her!  Her  soul  turned  sick,  and  all  went  dark  be- 
fore her  eyes.  She  reeled,  and  Morgan,  watchful 
for  something  like  this,  threw  his  arm  about  her, 
and  half  carried  her  toward  the  stairway.  He  was 
unspeakably  alarmed  at  her  utter  whiteness,  her 
limp  poverty  of  motion  or  volition. 

"The  guide  sprang  to  his  assistance.  Morgan, 
as  they  went  down  the  lift,  looked  back,  and  once 
more  his  eyes  met  those  of  the  man  with  the  knife — 
met  them  in  recognition;  and  as  he  did  so,  urged  on 
by  an  oath  from  the  boss,  the  butcher  turned  again 
to  his  work,  and,  as  if  in  renunciation  of  any  claim 
to  fellowship,  resumed  in  feverish  haste  and  with 
undiminished  skill  that  task  which  made  him  a  terror 
and  an  abomination  to  the  woman  who  had  mis- 
guidedly  penetrated  to  this  chamber  of  horrors. 

"The  boss  could  not  know  that  his  foul  blasphemy 
mingled  in  the  mind  of  the  man  with  the  knife,  with 
old  memories  of  the  use  of  the  same  words  in 
sacred  chant,  that  as  his  mind  wandered  in  the 
half-trance  of  mental  shock,  he  seemed  to  feel  him- 
self again  a  ministrant  of  religion.  Could  God, 
when  He  made  man,  have  imagined  and  designed 


104    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

such  abysses  in  his  life  as  that  which  yawned  be- 
tween that  time — and  this!" 

This  is  a  nasty  subject.  I  realize  it.  I  have 
purposely  chosen  an  illustration  from  the  worst  the 
working  world  has  to  show  in  order  to  make  vivid 
a  basic  principle,  widely  prevalent  in  modern  in- 
dustry. In  this  typical  process  the  machine  sets 
the  pace  of  the  man's  activity.  The  machinery  is 
not  assisting  human  labor;  human  labor  is  assisting 
machinery.  The  workman  has  ceased  to  be  a  man 
and  has  become  a  machine.  Of  course  he  gets 
drunk.  Why  shouldn't  he?  It's  his  way  of  escape 
from  the  monotonous  grind  of  machinery,  his  way 
of  seeking  forgetfulness,  his  way  of  indulging  at 
brief  intervals  the  pleasant  illusion  that  he  is  a 
man.  It's  a  compliment  to  him  that  he  wants  to 
get  drunk,  that  he  has  not  quite  lost  his  desire 
for  this  illusion.  Ought  not  industry  to  be  so 
organized  as  to  permit  workmen  to  feel  like  men 
in  reality,  and  not  compel  them  to  resort  to  drink, 
seeking  the  illusion  of  their  lost  manhood?  If  they 
had  a  chance  to  get  drunk  with  the  spirit,  would 
they  want  to  get  drunk  with  wine? 


CHAPTER    IX 

NOTHING   BUT   WAGES 

/"T"VHE  principle  at  stake  is  just  the  same  whether 
in  a  pig-killing  house  in  Chicago,  or  in  a  cotton 
factory  in  a  Southern  State,  or  in  a  steel  mill  in  the 
North,  or  a  sugar  plantation  in  Hawaii.  A  work- 
man who  gets  nothing  but  wages  is  not  getting 
enough,  whatever  the  amount  of  his  wages  may  be. 
He  is  after  something  not  represented  by  wages. 
The  hope  of  the  world,  the  possibility  of  any  prog- 
ress at  all  lies  in  the  fact  that  workingmen  are  not 
satisfied  merely  with  wages. 

What  they  rebel  against  is  feudalism  in  any  form. 
The  basic  factor  in  the  whole  structure  of  modern 
industry  against  which  their  soul  revolts  is  clearly 
exhibited  by  an  incident  in  the  childhood  of  Prince 
Kropotkin,  who  never  recovered  from  the  impres- 
sion it  made  upon  him.  As  he  described  it,  it  was 
the  scene  of  his  father  "narrating  for  the  children 
how  he  won  the  cross  of  Saint  Anne  and  the  golden 
sword  which  he  wore.  His  father  had  served  on 
the  general  staff  in  the  Turkish  campaign  of  1828, 
and  was  lodged  with  the  staff  in  a  Turkish  village 
when  it  took  fire.  Houses  were  enveloped  in  flames, 
and  in  one  a  child  had  been  left.  In  response  to 

105 


106    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  frantic  cries  of  the  mother,  Frol,  his  father's 
servant,  had  rushed  into  the  flames  and  saved  the 
child,  and  the  chief  commander,  who  saw  the  deed, 
had  at  once  given  his  father  the  cross,  for  gallantry. 
"  'But  father,'  exclaimed  the  children,  "  'it  was 
Frol  who  saved  the  child.'  'What  of  that?'  replied 
the  father,  'Was  he  not  my  man?  It  is  all  the 


same.' 


The  keen  and  infallible  instinct  of  the  children 
penetrated  at  once  to  the  moral  heart  of  their 
father's  action,  as  all  normal  and  unspoiled  children 
would.  They  instantly  recognized  slavery  when 
they  saw  it.  It  is  the  same  element  in  modern 
industry,  against  which  workingmen  are  protesting. 
Its  form  has  been  changed  and  its  hardships  miti- 
gated, but  the  fact  of  slavery  still  remains.  Its 
badge  may  be  a  wage,  quite  as  well  as  a  whip.  The 
wage  system,  as  now  commonly  practiced,  is  morally 
as  well  as  economically  wrong.  As  long  as  it  re- 
mains unmodified  by  a  new  and  different  element 
there  will  be  rebellion. 

It  is  quite  easy  to  be  misled  by  the  fact  that  most 
industrial  wars  have  been  fought  over  the  question 
of  wages.  It  is  obvious  that  both  capitalists  and 
laborers  have  frequently  degenerated  to  the  point 
where  the  capitalist  thinks  only  of  his  profits  and 
the  laborer  only  of  his  wages.  In  which  case,  both 
are  governed  by  the  pig-trough  philosophy;  both  are 
rank  materialists;  both  have  denatured  their  man- 
hood and  are  content  to  be  mere  animals.  Gross 


NOTHING  BUT  WAGES  107 

materialism  is  one  of  the  serious  blights  with  which 
modern  civilization  has  inflicted  our  world.  "My 
idea  of  hell,"  said  William  Allen  White,  "is  a  place 
where  every  man  owns  a  little  property  and  thinks 
he  is  just  about  to  lose  it." 

If  grabbing  is  the  game  one  side  is  playing,  why 
should  not  both  sides  engage  in  grabbing?  This 
apparently  is  what  they  are  doing,  both  capitalists 
and  workmen  alike.  In  the  process  of  the  game, 
strikes,  lockouts,  violence,  distrust,  lies,  soldiering, 
sharp  practices,  financial  losses,  public  hardships, 
are  not  only  involved;  they  are  necessary  conse- 
quences. They  must  occur  in  the  future,  as  in  the 
past,  so  long  as  this  kind  of  game  is  played.  They 
are  the  symptoms  of  a  basic  defect,  namely,  that 
the  game  itself  is  morally  and  economically  wrong. 
Profit  cannot  be  sought  directly  without  violating 
moral  principles.  It  is  a  legitimate  by-product  but 
not  a  legitimate  main-product.  Only  as  a  by-prod- 
uct, only  when  it  is  intrinsically  related  to  a  function 
performed,  is  profit  justly  acquired.  It  makes  all 
the  difference  in  the  world  whether  profit  is  put  in 
the  first  place  or  in  the  second  place.  Until  function 
is  put  in  the  first  place  and  profit  in  the  second  place, 
there  is  little  prospect  that  civil  war  in  industry  will 
be  abolished  or  even  abated.  A  grab-game,  with 
money  for  the  stakes,  occupies  the  foreground 
whenever  industry  is  organized  on  the  basis  of  the 
pig-trough  philosophy. 

While  this  is  the  fact  most  visible  on  the  surface, 


108    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

it  is  a  superficial  view  to  think  it  is  the  significant 
fact.  To  discover  the  real  fact  we  must  go  deeper. 
To  the  workingmen  at  least,  the  wage  is  chiefly 
regarded  as  a  symbol.  Their  motive  lies  with  some- 
thing else,  something  vastly  more  important.  They 
are  thinking  of  wife  and  children,  of  the  tragedy 
of  losing  a  child  through  lack  of  means  to  secure 
medical  aid,  of  education,  music,  books;  they  crave 
a  more  abundant  life,  of  which  money  is  the  symbol. 

From  tragic  first-hand  experience  he  feels  the 
force  of  such  facts  as  these.  The  length  of  his  life 
is  determined  by  material  circumstances;  the  average 
life  of  the  rich  man  is  over  fifty-five  years,  that  of 
the  poor  man  twenty-eight  years.  In  the  rich 
quarters  of  Paris,  the  death-rate  is  ten  in  one  thou- 
sand; in  the  poor  quarter  of  Montparnasse,  it  is 
forty-three  in  a  thousand.  In  Brussels  the  mortality 
among  children  under  five  years  of  age  is  six  per 
cent,  in  the  families  of  capitalists,  while  in  those  of 
laborers  it  is  fifty-four  per  cent.  Disease  multiplies 
in  proportion  to  poverty.  The  number  of  marriages 
is  determined  by  economic  conditions.  The  coef- 
ficient of  prostitution  rises  in  years  of  adversity 
and  falls  with  the  return  of  prosperity.  The  malady 
of  illiteracy  is  directly  the  product  of  poverty. 

The  question  of  wages,  then,  to  the  workman  is 
not  a  question  of  wages,  but  of  something  very 
different.  It  is  a  question  of  life,  and  love,  and 
morals.  The  picture  of  Crusoe  writing  a  journal, 
in  his  bower,  is  a  picture  of  the  average  workman's 


NOTHING  BUT  WAGES  109 

groping  aspirations.  He,  too,  desires  leisure  to 
write  a  journal,  the  physical  strength  to  do  it,  the 
mental  ability  equal  to  it,  and  above  all,  to  be  the 
kind  of  man  to  think  things  worth  recording.  Do 
I  over-honor  him?  Perhaps.  If  there  be  workmen 
not  animated  by  these  desires,  so  much  the  worse  is 
the  indictment  against  our  economic  order.  It's  a 
nation's  business  to  stimulate  and  keep  alive  such 
aspirations  in  her  citizens.  If  it  fails  at  this  point, 
it  fails  altogether.  Truly  said  David  Starr  Jordan 
that  uthe  final  test  of  any  nation  is  in  the  oppor- 
tunity it  gives  its  average  man  and  still  more  in  the 
fitness  of  the  average  man  to  grasp  this  oppor- 
tunity." 

However  d^imly  seen  or  feebly  expressed,  the 
desire  for  a  more  abundant  life  is  the  motive  back 
of  the  demand  for  wages  and  the  rebellion  against 
the  slavery  of  machinery.  Among  large  and  grow- 
ing groups  of  workmen  it  is  not  dimly  seen  at  all, 
but  very  clearly  seen  and  always  has  been.  It  is 
highly  significant  to  note  how  keenly  the  working- 
men  in  Europe  and  America  perceived  the  inner 
meaning  of  the  war  against  Germany  and  the  moral 
confusion  of  the  Allies  since  its  close.  It  was  a 
class  of  workmen  in  England  that  not  only  per- 
ceived it  but  expressed  it  more  effectively  than  any 
other  class — witness  "The  Aims  of  Labour"  by 
Arthur  Henderson,  one  of  the  noblest  documents 
that  issued  from  this  war  or  any  other. 

The  inner  meaning  of  the  war  and  the  reaction 


110    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

following  it  is  so  pointedly  stated  by  Gino  Speranza 
in  a  recent  article  in  the  Hibbert  Journal,  and  his 
statement  makes  so  clear  the  root  difficulty  with 
modern  industry  and  the  reason  for  present  unrest, 
that  I  quote  from  it  at  some  length: 

"Could  there  be  a  darker  indictment  against  the 
age  of  the  machine  than  the  world's  attitude  to- 
wards the  Great  War  within  a  brief  span  of  its 
triumphant  close?  We  called  it  a  struggle  for 
freedom  from  German  hegemony,  from  Prussian 
militarism,  but  it  was  much  more  than  that.  Ger- 
manism meant  Standardisation'  of  the  world's  ef- 
forts; it  meant,  had  it  succeeded,  the  plotting  out  of 
the  world  into  'organised,'  'specialised,'  and  'regu- 
lated' zones  of  trade  and  economic  activities.  A 
German  victory  would  have  carried  with  it  the 
gradual  centralisation  and  standardisation  of  human 
culture  divided  into  classified  workers  and  pro- 
ducers, each  trained  to  efficiency  in  the  one  kind  of 
labour,  mental  or  manual,  to  which  he  would  have 
been  'scientifically'  assigned.  Europe,  if  not  Amer- 
ica, would  have  been  changed  into  a  well-ordered, 
spick-and-span,  busy,  productive,  comfortable,  and 
highly  'organised'  world,  but  a  world  filled  with  a 
spiritually  enslaved  humanity.  In  short,  German 
success  would  have  meant  the  safe  entrenchment 
for  another  century  of  the  age  of  the  machine. 
.  .  .  Yet  within  a  few  months  of  the  armistice 
the  forces  of  destructive  criticism  largely  succeeded 
in  beclouding  the  great  spiritual  issues  of  that 


NOTHING  BUT  WAGES  111 

struggle,  often  honouring  those  who  had  opposed 
it  or  endangered  its  success.  Men  and  women  who 
had  suffered  in  the  cause  now  heard  nothing  but 
discussions  of  victory  in  terms  of  lost  capital,  of 
lost  trade,  of  diminished  man  power,  or  of  the 
inability  of  the  enemy  to  pay  indemnities.  Leaders 
announced  various  programmes  of  'reconstruction/ 
but  what  did  such  programmes  hold  forth?  They 
all  sought  to  force  the  molten  mass  of  mentally 
dazed  and  body-weary  humanity  from  its  golden 
crucible  of  spiritual  exaltation  into  the  old  grooves 
of  a  materialistic  and  'mechanistic'  world.  Human- 
ity in  the  throes  of  its  spiritual  re-birth  cried  out 
for  Messiahs,  and  the  'reconstructionists'  again 
tendered  to  it  efficiency  engineers!  The  financiers 
said  the  world's  unrest  was  due  to  the  exchange 
and  an  unsettled  trade  balance;  the  economists  said 
it  was  due  to  lack  of  production,  which  raised  the 
cost  of  living;  the  reconstructionists  said  the  hope 
of  the  world  rested  on  the  possibility  of  'speeding 
up,'  of  earning  more  wages  so  as  to  have  the  old 
comforts  and  more  of  them.  The  post-war  slogan 
of  every  reformer,  of  every  statesman,  of  every 
leader  became:  'Produce!  Produce!  Produce!'  It 
was  the  old  motto  of  the  age  of  the  machine,  and 
it  rang  false  in  a  world  ennobled  but  worn  out  by 
a  struggle  to  be  free.  And  none  of  the  panaceas 
announced  brought  relief;  neither  high  wages,  nor 
increased  comforts,  nor  participation  in  profits,  nor 
political  recognition  stilled  the  unrest;  for  behind 


112    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

and  beyond  the  visible,  tangible,  and  often  grossly 
selfish  and  material  demands  lay  the  awakened  urge 
of  mankind  wishing  to  be  rid  of  the  tyranny  it  had 
fought. 

"There  is  political  tyranny — a  form  of  oppres- 
sion which  men  have  learned  to  distinguish  and 
have  forged  weapons  to  fight;  but  there  is  a  more 
insidious  tyranny,  not  as  easily  discernible  and 
harder  to  cast  off,  and  that  is  the  tyranny  of  ideas. 
Of  such  is  the  tyranny  of  the  age  of  the  machine — 
a  body  of  superstitious  beliefs,  scientifically  but- 
tressed, in  the  power  and  importance  of  those  forces 
which  make  men  comfortable,  for  which  we  have 
surrendered  our  faith  in  the  forces  that  make  men 
free." 

This  thoughtful  statement  accurately  expresses 
the  dominant  and  irrepressible  issue  before  modern 
industry.  It  is  an  infinitely  profounder  issue  than 
that  raised  by  the  pig-trough  philosophy.  The 
acid  test  of  the  value  of  machinery  is  the  place  we 
assign  to  it  in  our  thought.  Is  it  to  be  used  to 
enslave  men  or  to  free  them?  Was  machinery 
made  for  man  or  he  for  it?  In  the  organization 
of  modern  industry,  will  men  be  used  to  assist 
machinery,  or  machinery  to  assist  men?  Is  the 
tendency  of  modern  industry  to  make  goods  cheaper 
and  men  dearer,  or  the  reverse?  Will  factories 
accept  as  their  natural  function  the  making  of  men 
as  well  as  the  making  of  goods?  The  question  at 
issue  is  not  mechanical,  but  moral  and  scientific. 


NOTHING  BUT  WAGES  113 

Will  we  dethrone  marvelous  modern  inventions  as 
masters  of  the  human  spirit,  and  enthrone  the 
human  spirit  as  much  more  marvelous?  Will  we 
be  sufficiently  fair  to  the  facts  to  assign  to  the  man 
and  the  machine  the  relative  values  expressed  by 
Mrs.  Browning,  when  she  said: 

If  we  trod  the  deeps  of  ocean, 
If  we  struck  the  stars  in  rising, 
If  we  wrapped  the  globe  intensely 
With  one  hot  electric  breath, 
'Twere  but  power  within  our  tether, 
No  new  spirit-power  comprising, 
And  in  life  we  were  not  greater  men 
Nor  bolder  men  in  death. 


CHAPTER   X 

A   DIVIDED    HOUSE 

'TPHIS,  then,  is  "Robinson  Crusoe's"  challege  to 
•*•  modern  industry.  It  is  not  a  superficial  criti- 
cism, but  questions  the  very  basis  on  which  industry 
rests.  It  deals  not  with  effects,  but  causes.  It  aims 
not  at  reformation,  but  transformation.  This  is 
not  merely  criticism.  It  is  constructive  criticism — • 
that  is,  it  is  criticism  by  construction. 

We  are  not  indulging  in  diagnosis  as  a  pleasant 
pastime.  We  are  searching  for  a  way  out  of  a 
trouble  already  existing.  "Robinson  Crusoe's" 
challenge  did  not  create  the  difficulty.  The  indus- 
trial revolution  creates  it.  Modern  industry's  in- 
jury to  the  nation  creates  it.  It  is  the  facts  them- 
selves, which  constitute  the  challenge.  "Robinson 
Crusoe"  only  makes  clear  their  inner  meaning. 

If  any  one  desires  to  understand  the  challenge 
made  by  the  industrial  revolution  to  thoughtful  men, 
let  him  read  Charles  Reade's  novel  "Put  Yourself 
in  His  Place."  Certain  elements  of  barbarism  ex- 
isting in  the  period  he  describes  have  been  elim- 
inated, but  the  essential  elements  of  the  problem 
remain  and  some  additional  ones  have  been  added, 
as  any  one  can  see,  if  he  will  visit  some  of  our  steel 

114 


A  DIVIDED  HOUSE  115 

mills,  coal  mines,  cotton  factories  and  sugar  planta- 
tions. 

If  any  one  wishes  to  know  the  inexcusable  and 
unscientific  waste  in  modern  industry;  wastage  in 
money,  production,  good-will  and  human  values,  let 
him  read  the  illuminating  and  courageous  report, 
"Waste  in  Industry,"  made  by  the  Federated  Amer- 
ican Engineering  Societies. 

If  any  one  wants  to  realize  the  serious  damage 
modern  industry  is  doing  the  nation,  let  him  open 
his  eyes  and  look  around.  The  nation  socially  is 
very  sick.  Everywhere  men  are  divided  into  classes 
according  to  their  tastes  and  occupations,  coniending 
for  their  personal  interests.  Racial  antagonisms, 
economic  jealousies,  class  cleavages  are  destroying 
America  as  a  society.  Civil  war  in  industry  is 
chronic.  It  is  a  stock  remark  of  the  super-patriot 
that  in  America  there  are  no  classes.  No,  not 
theoretically.  This  remark  is  built  out  of  his  mem- 
ory, not  out  of  the  facts.  All  men  with  eyes  to 
see  know  that  in  very  few  places  in  America  are 
there  anything  else  but  classes. 

*'A  country,"  says  Mazzini,  "is  a  fellowship  of 
free  and  equal  men  bound  together  in  a  brotherly 
concord  of  labor  towards  a  single  end."  This  ideal 
with  which  we  began  remains  only  as  a  memory  and 
has  ceased  to  exist  as  a  fact,  except  partially  and  at 
rare  intervals  during  a  period  of  war.  Every  lover 
of  his  country  hates  this  fact,  but  he  can  never  help 
to  destroy  it  by  shutting  his  eyes  to  it.  He  must 


116    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

not  be  a  blind  lover,  but  a  lover  like  Lowell,  whose 
love  gave  him  the  courage  to  say : 

I  loved  my  country,  so  as  only  they, 
Who  love  a  mother  fit  to  die  for,  may; 
I  loved  her  old  renown,  her  stainless  fame, 
What  better  proof  than  that  I  loathed  her  shame. 

A  true  lover  of  his  country,  like  Lowell,  is  op- 
timist enough  to  face  facts.  The  fact  is  that  we 
are  a  house  divided  against  itself.  It  ought  to  be 
clear  to  thoughtful  lovers  of  their  country,  that  the 
time  has  come  to  revive  and  resound  the  solemn 
warning  uttered  a  half-century  ago  by  our  typical 
American,  ua  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand."  The  only  way  a  man,  who  is  optimist 
enough  to  face  the  facts  as  they  are,  can  hope  to 
retain  his  optimism  is  to  do  something  to  help 
change  the  facts.  If  our  house  is  not  to  fall  it  must 
cease  to  be  divided,  as  Lincoln  said.  If  it  is  to 
cease  to  be  divided  it  is  obvious  that  a  means  must 
be  found  to  bring  all  men  as  citizens  into  common 
council  to  secure  mutual  understanding  and  con- 
certed action. 

As  a  start  in  this  direction,  one  thing  is  indis- 
pensably important.  The  external  conditions  of  the 
period  described  in  Readers  novel,  have  been  largely 
altered,  but  the  title  of  his  book  has  undying  social 
significance.  "Put  Yourself  in  His  Place"  is  in 
fact  the  statement  of  a  universal  moral  principle, 
a  spiritual  axiom  of  social  progress.  To  achieve 


A  DIVIDED  HOUSE  117 

this  act  is  both  a  science  and  an  art.  Reade  calls 
it  the  "great  transmigratory  art,"  and  declares  that 
"were  it  to  be  taught  as  generally  as  reading  and 
writing,  that  teaching  alone  would  quadruple  the 
intelligence  of  mankind  and  go  far  to  double  its 
virtue." 

Reade  is  right.  By  far  the  larger  amount  of 
injustice  practiced  by  men  is  due  not  so  much  to 
their  lack  of  good-will,  as  to  their  inveterate  in- 
ability to  put  themselves  in  the  other  fellow's  place. 
The  act  of  sympathetic  imagination  by  which  we 
put  ourselves  in  the  other  fellow's  place,  take  the 
point  of  view  of  a  class  other  than  our  own,  is  the 
first  step  towards  progress  in  adjusting  industrial 
disputes.  It  is  the  one  way  to  acquire  knowledge 
of  his  problem  and  find  a  solution  of  our  own.  But 
you  cannot  perform  this  act,  you  cannot  put  your- 
self in  his  place,  except  through  one  faculty  and 
that  is  an  open  mind. 

It  may  be  that  before  you  acquire  the  habit  of 
open-mindedness,  the  capacity  to  take  in  a  new 
idea,  it  will  be  necessary  for  you  to  pass  through 
a  mental  revolution.  That  is  just  what  modern 
industry  most  needs  to  happen  to  it.  It  should  be 
obvious  that  it  is  idle  to  expect  any  progress  with- 
out an  open  mind. 

Every  great  leader  of  the  world's  thought  and 
action  has  insisted  on  its  indispensable  importance. 
Confucius  expressed  it  in  the  golden  phrase  "mental 
hospitality."  Socrates  used  a  phrase  out  of  which 


118    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

was  coined  the  word  "philosopher."  He  said,  "I 
am  not  a  wise  man;  I  am  a  lover  of  wisdom;  a 
seeker  after  new  ideas."  Jesus  called  it,  "the  spirit 
of  truth."  So  highly  did  he  regard  it  that  he  called 
it  a  holy  spirit.  The  reason  why  these  masterful 
leaders  of  men  so  prized  the  habit  of  being  open- 
minded  is  because  they  understood  that  without  men* 
tal  hospitality  no  progress  in  any  line  is  possible. 

Mental  hospitality  is  such  essential  equipment  for 
an  understanding  of  what  is  to  follow  that  I  em- 
phasize it  by  restating  it  in  an  unforgettable  para- 
ble, a  poem  by  Charlotte  Perkins  Stetson,  called 
"The  Conservative": 

The  garden  bed  I  wandered  by 

One  bright  and  cheerful  morn, 
When  I  found  a  new-fledged  butterfly 

A-sitting  on  a  thorn, 
A  black  and  crimson  butterfly 

All  doleful  and  forlorn. 

I  thought  that  life  could  have  no  sting 

To  infant  butterflies. 
So  I  gazed  on  this  unhappy  thing 

With  wonder  and  surprise, 
While  sadly  with  his  waving  wing 

He  wiped  his  weeping  eyes. 

Said  I,  "What  can  the  matter  be? 

Why  weepest  thou  so  sore 
With  garden  fair  and  sunlight  free 

And  flowers  in  goodly  store?" 
But  he  only  turned  away  from  me 

And  burst  into  a  roar. 


A  DIVIDED  HOUSE  119 

Cried  he,  "My  legs  are  thin  and  few, 

Where  once  I  had  a  swarm  ; 
Soft,  fuzzy  fur,  a  joy  to  view, 

Once  kept  my  body  warm, 
Before  these  flapping  wing  things  grew 

To  hamper  and  deform." 

At  that  outrageous  bug  I  shot 

The  fury  of  mine  eye. 
Said  I,  in  scorn  all  burning  hot, 

In  rage  and  anger  high, 
"You  ignominious  idiot, 

Those  wings  were  made  to  fly." 

"I  do  not  want  to  fly,"  said  he, 

"I  only  want  to  squirm." 
And  he  dropped  his  wings  dejectedly, 

But  still  his  voice  was  firm; 
"I  do  not  want  to  be  a  fly, 

I  want  to  be  a  worm." 

0  yesterday  of  unknown  lack, 
Today  of  unknown  bliss; 

1  left  my  fool  in  red  and  black; 
The  last  I  saw  was  this, 

The  creature  madly  climbing  back 
Into  his  chrysalis. 

This  parable  needs  no  comment.  We  are  in  its 
debt,  if  it  leads  us  to  conclude  that  wherever  we 
go  we  are  not  going  backwards.  This  is  the  age 
of  the  flying  machine.  We  are  not  going  to  scrap 
the  machinery  produced  by  the  industrial  revolution, 
as  Ruskin  and  Carlyle  thought  we  ought  to  do.  It 


120    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

was  not  the  fault  of  the  machinery,  but  the  use  we 
made  of  it.  We  intend  to  liberate  modern  industry 
from  the  dead  chrysalis  forms  of  the  past,  so  that 
it  may  use  its  wings  to  fly  into  the  free  air  and 
sunshine  of  a  new  and  joyous  enterprise.  Industry 
which  has  sorely  crippled  the  nation  will  yet  be  one 
of  the  nation's  saviours,  perhaps  its  greatest. 

I  would  beg  my  reader,  therefore,  to  go  into  the 
next  part  of  the  discussion  with  an  open  mind, 
willing  to  be  disturbed,  unafraid  of  new  ideas.  I 
would  say  both  to  managers  and  men,  what  Oliver 
Cromwell  once  said  to  the  members  of  the  British 
Parliament:  "I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  mercies 
of  Christ,  to  believe  it  is  possible  for  you  to  be 
mistaken." 

"Robinson  Crusoe"  not  only  challenges  modern 
industry  at  its  crucial  point  of  weakness,  but  also 
supplies  the  remedy  for  it,  the  only  remedy  there 
is.  To  state  what  the  remedy  is  and  how  it  is 
applied  is  the  purpose  of  the  next  Part. 


PART   III 

HOW   ROBINSON    CRUSOE   SOLVES   THE 
LABOR   PROBLEM 


The  final  test  of  any  nation  is  in  the  opportunity  it  gives 
its  average  man,  and  still  more  in  the  fitness  of  the  average 
man  to  grasp  the  opportunity. 

— DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 


PART   III 

HOW   ROBINSON    CRUSOE   SOLVES   THE 
LABOR   PROBLEM 


CHAPTER    I 

POLITICS   AND   INDUSTRY 

TTOW  to  secure  concerted  action  in  the  whole 
••*  •*•  and  at  the  same  time  preserve  autonomy  in 
the  individual  parts — this  is  our  central  social  prob- 
lem, whether  it  emerges  in  politics,  or  religion,  or 
economics.  In  the  political  world  there  is  constant 
conflict  between  the  governors  and  the  governed. 
How  to  insure  peaceful  concerted  action  in  the 
nation  and  autonomy  in  the  units,  which  compose  it; 
how  a  nation  can  be  strong  enough  to  preserve 
itself  without  destroying  personal  liberty, — that  is 
the  political  problem  and  always  has  been  from  the 
beginning  of  recorded  history.  In  the  family,  the 
ancient  authority  of  the  father  over  his  children 
and  the  husband  over  his  wife  has  been  greatly 
weakened  and  in  some  nations  altogether  destroyed. 
How  to  reconcile  the  moral  rights  of  woman  and 

123 


124    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  freedom  of  her  personality  with  the  unity  neces- 
sary to  ordered  family  life, — that  is  the  social  prob- 
lem. In  industry  the  conflict  between  capital,  which 
is  accumulated  wealth,  and  labor  as  a  mental  proc- 
ess, which  is  the  creator  of  wealth,  is  acute.  Work- 
men no  longer  are  willing  to  be  slaves  of  capital, 
but  demand  their  freedom.  How  to  reconcile  the 
freedom  of  workmen  with  the  necessity  for  con- 
certed industrial  action, — that  is  the  industrial 
problem. 

The  principle,  which  constitutes  the  problem  in 
each  case,  is  exactly  the  same.  It  is  the  science 
and  art  of  community  organization.  Our  familiar- 
ity with  this  problem  in  politics  and  religion  has 
equipped  us  with  the  ability  to  recognize  it  as  an 
old  friend,  now  that  it  has  emerged  with  glaring 
intensity  in  the  industrial  field.  The  paramount 
problem  of  the  present  day  is  the  industrial  problem, 
but  it  is  a  new  staging  of  an  old  and  irrepressible 
issue.  Achille  Loria  maintains  that  there  is  today 
no  religious  question  and  no  political  question,  but 
only  the  economic  question.  It  is  true  that  the  re- 
ligious question  is  not  the  same  as  it  was  when  the 
church  tried  to  stifle  thought,  to  combat  scientific 
investigation  and  to  exercise  temporal  authority. 
Likewise  the  political  question  is  not  the  same  as 
it  was  when  democratic  aspirations  waged  war 
against  the  tyranny  of  kings,  and  when  defenseless 
people  were  held  in  open  slavery.  In  religion  and 
politics  certain  crude  battles  have  been  fought  and 


POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY  125 

won;  a  certain  achievement  has  been  made,  which 
has  not  yet  been  made  in  economics.  It  is,  there- 
fore, obvious  that  the  economic  question  is  now 
the  burning  question  in  a  sense  in  which  religion  and 
politics  are  no  longer  burning  questions. 

It  is  not  fair  to  the  facts  and  it  would  be  a 
profound  mistake  to  suppose  that  there  is  no  longer 
a  political  question  or  a  religious  question.  They 
exist  in  different  forms  and  stages  of  development, 
but  they  still  exist,  and  are  more  persistent  and 
challenging  than  heretofore.  It  would  be  nearer 
the  truth  to  say  that  these  questions  had  entered 
the  economic  field  and  that  all  three  questions  had 
become  merged,  only  with  the  economic  face  of  it 
to  the  forefront.  The  three  basic  questions  of 
perennial  interest  to  human  welfare  are  politics, 
religion  and  economics.  (  What  is  now  happening 
is  that  we  are  discovering  that  they  constitute  one 
and  the  same  question.  ) 

When  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation 
raised  four  million  creatures  from  the  status  of  chat- 
tels to  the  status  of  human  beings,  what  was  that, 
an  economic,  or  political,  or  religious  act?  It  was 
obviously  all  three.  It  was  economic,  for  it  revolu- 
tionized the  form  of  labor.  It  was  political,  for  it 
was  achieved  through  governmental  machinery.  It 
was  religious,  for  it  righted  a  glaring  human  wrong, 
and  without  the  impetus  of  the  religious  sentiment 
it  could  never  had  been  achieved.  It  is  no  more 
possible  to  separate  the  three  elements  of  this  prob- 


126    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

lem,  than  it  would  be  possible  to  separate  oxygen 
and  hydrogen  and  still  have  water. 

James  Russell  Lowell  once  wrote  the  following 
"Parable": 

Said  Christ  our  Lord,  "I  will  go  and  see 
How  the  men,  my  brethren,  believe  in  me." 
He  passed  not  again  through  the  gate  of  birth, 
But  made  himself  known  to  the  children  of  earth. 

Then  said  the  chief  priests,  and  rulers,  and  kings, 
"Behold,  now,  the  Giver  of  all  good  things; 
Go  to,  let  us  welcome  with  pomp  and  state 
Him  who  alone  is  mighty  and  great." 

With  carpets  of  gold  the  ground  they  spread 

Wherever  the  Son  of  Man  should  tread; 

And  in  palace-chambers  lofty  and  rare 

They  lodged  him,  and  served  him  with  kingly  fare. 

Great  organs  surged  through  arches  dim 
Their  jubilant  floods  in  praise  of  him; 
And  in  church,  and  palace,  and  judgment-hall, 
He  saw  his  own  image  high  over  all. 

But  still,  wherever  his  steps  they  led, 
The  Lord  in  sorrow  bent  down  his  head; 
And  from  under  the  heavy  foundation-stones 
The  Son  of  Mary  heard  bitter  groans. 

And  in  church,  and  palace,  and  judgment-hall, 
He  marked  great  fissures  that  rent  the  wall, 
And  opened  wider  and  yet  more  wide 
As  the  living  foundation  heaved  and  sighed. 


POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY  127 

"Have  you  founded  your  thrones  and  altars,  then, 
On  the  bodies  and  souls  of  living  men? 
And  think  ye  that  building  shall  endure 
Which  shelters  the  noble  and  crushes  the  poor? 

"With  gates  of  silver  and  bars  of  gold 

Ye  have  fenced  my  sheep  from  their  Father's  fold ; 

I  have  heard  the  dropping  of  their  tears 

In  heaven  these  eighteen  hundred  years." 

"O  Lord  and  Master,  not  ours  the  guilt, 
We  built  but  as  our  fathers  built; 
Behold  thine  images,  how  they  stand, 
Sovereign  and  sole,  through  all  our  land. 

"Our  task  is  hard — with  sword  and  flame 
To  hold  thine  earth  forever  the  same, 
And  with  sharp  crooks  of  steel  to  keep 
Still,  as  thou  leftest  them,  thy  sheep." 

Then  Christ  sought  out  an  artisan, 
A  low-browed,  stunted,  haggard  man, 
And  a  motherless  girl,  whose  ringers  thin 
Pushed  from  her  faintly  want  and  sin. 

These  set  he  in  the  midst  of  them, 
And  as  they  drew  back  their  garment-hem, 
For  fear  of  defilement,  "Lo,  here,"  said  he, 
"The  images  ye  have  made  of  me!" 

When  he  wrote  this  parable,  did  Lowell  speak 
as  a  prophet  or  a  statesman?  Obviously  as  both. 
The  type  of  human  product  society  manufactures 
admittedly  is  the  concern  of  religion.  Is  it  any  the 


128     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

less  the  concern  of  a  nation?  The  making  of  men 
and  women  is  the  chief  business  of  the  nation. 
"The  low-browed,  stunted,  haggard  man," — is  he 
a  fit  man  to  exercise  the  franchise  ?  Can  such  men 
exercise  the  franchise  intelligently?  And  yet  his 
right  to  vote  makes  him  the  creator  of  legislators 
and  public  policies.  Is  it  not  clear  that,  in  propor- 
tion as  this  type  of  man  multiplies,  the  foundation 
of  the  nation  is  built  on  sand  and  confronted  with 
the  ever-present  possibility  of  crumbling? 

The  reason  that  the  political  question  has  been 
merged  in  the  economic  question  is  the  discovery 
that  there  can  be  no  political  democracy  in  fact 
unless  there  is  also  industrial  democracy.  When- 
ever one  group  of  men  acquires  great  wealth  and 
becomes  economically  strong,  and  another  group 
becomes  economically  weak,  the  strong  group  will 
always  control  the  machinery  of  government  and 
dictate  laws  to  protect  their  own  interests.  Oliver 
Cromwell  once  wrote  to  Parliament:  "If  there  be 
any  one  that  makes  many  poor  to  make  a  few  rich, 
that  suits  not  a  commonwealth."  It  not  only  does 
not  suit  a  commonwealth,  but  it  makes  a  common- 
wealth in  any  true  sense  impossible.  In  1890  one 
per  cent,  of  the  families  of  the  country,  owned  one 
half  of  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the  country,  more 
than  all  the  rest  of  the  nation  put  together!  Ac- 
cording to  the  1910  census  the  distribution  of  wealth 
is  still  more  unequal,  so  much  so  as  to  be  alarming. 
Nine-tenth's  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  population  owns 


POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY  129 

seventy  per  cent,  of  the  wealth.     The  figures  are  as 
follows : 

POPULATION  AGGREGATE    WEALTH 

00.9  per  cent,  owns 70.5  per  cent. 

29.0  per  cent,  owns 25.3  per  cent. 

70.1  per  cent,  owns 4.2  per  cent. 


100.0  100.0 

The  enormous  increase  in  the  ownership  of 
wealth  by  the  few  and  decrease  in  ownership  by 
the  many  is  significant  not  only  because  of  the 
physical  hardship  entailed.  It  is  spiritually  disturb- 
ing as  well.  The  fact  is  disturbing  enough;  the 
cause  of  it  is  still  more  so.  It  is  because  industrial 
conditions  make  it  increasingly  difficult  for  the  many 
to  use  their  thinking  powers.  Inequality  of  oppor- 
tunity, denial  of  the  chance  to  be  creative  workmen 
and  produce  what  they  have  the  power  to  produce, 
this  is  the  real  point  of  distress  in  the  problem. 

Similar  inequality  in  the  exercise  of  power  is 
exhibited  in  another  phase  of  the  problem.  It  is 
idle  to  suppose  that  this  group  of  one  per  cent, 
will  be  content  with  one  per  cent,  of  the  political 
power.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  have  not  been. 
They  have  bought  and  sold  legislation  as  they  would 
cotton  cloth. 

When  an  effort  was  made  to  have  enacted  in 
Albany  the  Mercantile  Inspection  Law, — a  humane 
law  to  provide  sanity  accommodations  and  seats  for 


130    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

female  clerks  in  New  York  department  stores, — the 
bill  was  defeated  for  several  years  by  a  lobby 
of  merchants.  During  that  period  many  articles 
against  it  appeared  in  a  certain  New  York  news- 
paper, and  orders  were  sent  down  from  the  count- 
ing-room of  this  same  newspaper  to  permit  no 
article  in  its  favor  to  appear,  and  such  articles  were 
therefore  rejected.  Thomas  Jefferson  well  said  that 
"when  newspapers  are  controlled  by  money,  then 
they  are  a  most  dangerous  factor  in  a  republic." 
When  this  bill  was  finally  passed  in  spite  of  oppo- 
sition, its  same  enemies  so  thwarted  its  administra- 
tion that  it  speedily  became  a  dead  letter.  When- 
ever selfish  special  interests  dominate  the  making 
of  laws,  thwart  their  administration  and  distort  in- 
telligent public  opinion,  then  political  democracy 
ceases  to  exist. 

The  illustration  of  this  fact  used  by  Rauschen- 
busch  is  the  interference  of  President  Roosevelt  in 
the  great  coal  strike  a  few  years  ago,  which  was 
hailed  as  a  demonstration  that  the  people  are  still 
supreme,  but  which  he  thinks  rather  demonstrated 
that  the  supremacy  of  the  people  is  almost  gone. 
The  country  was  on  the  verge  of  a  vast  public 
calamity.  A  sudden  cold  snap  would  have  sent 
death  through  our  eastern  cities,  not  with  his  old 
fashioned  scythe,  but  with  a  modern  reaper.  The 
president  merely  undertook  to  advise  and  persuade, 
and  was  met  with  an  almost  insolent  rejoinder. 
Jacob  A.  Riis  said  that  the  president  when  he  con- 


POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY  131 

eluded  to  interfere,  set  his  face  grimly,  and  said, 
uYes,  I  will  do  it.  I  suppose  that  ends  me;  but  it 
is  right  and  I  will  do  it."  The  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts afterward  sent  him  "the  thanks  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  country."  The  pres- 
ident replied:  "Yes,  we  have  put  it  through.  But, 
heavens  and  earth !  It  has  been  a  struggle."  What 
is  this  sinister  power,  whose  selfish  interests  can 
take  precedence  over  the  safety  of  the  people,  so 
that  a  common-sense  action  by  the  first  officer  of 
the  nation  is  likely  to  bring  upon  him  political  ruin? 
Is  there  an  invisible  government  back  of  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington  which  can  prevent  it  from 
rendering  public  service? 

It  is  clear  that  economic  inequalities  naturally 
produce  political  inequalities.  There  can  never  be 
any  political  democracy  as  long  as  pure  patriotic 
sentiments  are  replaced  by  selfish  economic  interests. 
A  political  democracy  can  exist  only  where  there  is 
either  approximate  economic  equality,  or  else  where 
economic  inequality  is  regulated  by  a  stronger, 
nobler  spirit  than  self-interest.  That  stronger, 
nobler  spirit  is  industrial  democracy. 

It  is  clear  then  that  the  political,  religious  and 
economic  problems  can  no  longer  be  kept  separate 
from  each  other  in  air-tight  compartments.  When- 
ever an  issue  is  raised  or  solved  in  any  one  of  them 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  it  will  emerge 
in  the  others  also.  And  this  is  what  has  now  hap- 
pened the  world  over  in  dramatic  fashion. 


132    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

At  the  time  when  workmen  had  no  standing  in 
the  law  they  lived  in  a  state  of  vassalage  and  were 
treated  as  things.  They  were  denied  the  right  to 
own  property  and  as  a  consequence  they  owned 
none.  As  long  as  the  facts  of  their  condition  and 
their  legal  status  harmonized,  the  economic  problem 
was  practically  non-existent.  But  now  universal 
equality  before  the  law  is  an  accomplished  and 
recognized  fact.  This  achievement  gave  them  the 
right  to  own  property.  It  admitted  them  not  only 
to  equal  private  rights,  but  equal  public  rights,  which 
included  the  right 'to  vote. 

But  the  theoretic  equality  of  all  men  before  the 
law  was  contradicted  by  a  striking  inequality  in 
actual  condition.  The  worker's  status  politically 
was  in  irreconcilable  conflict  with  his  status  indus- 
trially. Why  grant  him  an  equality  of  opportunity 
in  political  life  and  deny  the  same  thing  in  economic 
life?  It  raises  an  irrepressible  issue.  Political 
democracy  and  industrial  autocracy  cannot  both  exist 
for  long  in  the  same  nation.  The  same  man  cannot 
long  continue  to  be  half  free  and  half  slave ;  a  poli- 
tical freeman  and  an  industrial  slave.  When  the 
American  Revolutionary  War  was  fought  to  achieve 
equality  of  opportunity  for  self-development,  it  is 
only  natural  to  expect  that  the  same  principle  then 
contested  in  politics  would  sooner  or  later  be  con- 
tested in  economics.  That  time  has  now  fully  come. 

It  is  highly  important  to  remember  that  the  eco- 
nomic problem  now  insistently  clamoring  for  solu- 


POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY  133 

tion,  is  the  same  problem  we  have  already  faced  in 
American  politics.  We  met  it  once;  we  can  do  it 
again.  There  is,  therefore,  no  occasion  to  get 
scared  or  to  get  mad.  In  the  beginning  of  our 
history  we  faced  the  difficult  task  of  securing  con- 
certed action  in  the  whole  without  infringing  upon 
individual  freedom  in  the  parts.  These  two  prin- 
ciples were  the  subject  of  a  long  and  heated  con- 
troversy. Jefferson  stood  for  local  autonomy — 
Hamilton  for  federal  power.  It  was  a  royal  con- 
test and  one  of  vast  importance  to  the  future  welfare 
of  the  country.  Both  men  were  in  Washington's 
cabinet,  but  they  became  political,  then  personal 
enemies.  If  we  inquire  which  won  in  this  contest 
the  answer  must  be — both.  Hamilton  won  first — 
Jefferson  won  last  and  permanently.  But  when  he 
became  president  he  did  not  undo  the  work  of  his 
great  rival,  for  he  recognized  its  merits.  Both  men 
were  ardent  patriots,  and  idealists.  The  pity  of  it 
is  that  they  failed  to  understand  each  other,  failed 
to  see  that  the  common  welfare  requires  the  union 
of  the  two  principles  for  which  they  separately 
contended. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  "either-or,"  but  a  question 
of  "both-and."  The  economic  problem  like  the  po- 
litical problem  and  every  other  great  question,  has 
two  sides  to  it  which  are  opposite  but  not  contradic- 
tory. In  the  continued  and  successful  adjustment  of 
the  two  sides  of  the  political  problem,  America  has 
made  a  larger  contribution  towards  its  solution  than 


134    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

has  been  made  by  any  other  nation.  Her  great 
national  tradition  will  inspire  her  to  do  the  same 
in  the  economic  field.  She  will  proceed  to  eliminate 
the  contradiction  between  her  democratic  political 
ideals  and  her  industrial  practice.  She  will  create 
a  new  industrial  America. 


CHAPTER    II 

FRACTIONIZING  A  MAN 

/~PVO  remember  America's  achievement  in  politics 
•*•  will  assist  in  discovering  the  direction  in  which 
a  solution  is  to  be  found  for  the  industrial  problem. 
But  if  we  are  ever  to  find  the  solution,  it  is  impera- 
tive that  we  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  exact  nature 
of  the  problem.  In  the  previous  chapters  we  an- 
alyzed the  origin  and  nature  of  the  problem.  We 
must  now  restate  it  in  terms  of  its  solution.  In  the 
second  part  we  found  that  the  critical  blunder  of 
modern  industry  is  its  treatment  of  labor  as  a  com- 
modity. We  discovered  that  while  modern  business 
has  made  an  extraordinary  exhibit  of  mechanical 
and  scientific  intelligence,  it  has  made  also  an  ex- 
traordinary exhibit  of  the  lack  of  social  intelligence. 
But  when  we  conclude  that  labor  is  not  a  commodity, 
that  is  only  a  start  towards  a  solution.  It  tells  us 
only  what  labor  is  not;  it  does  not  tell  us  what 
labor  is. 

True,  the  incontestable  statement  that  labor  is 
not  a  commodity,  while  it  ought  never  to  have 
needed  saying,  nevertheless  in  view  of  the  past  in- 
dustrial barbarism,  is  a  grave  and  beautiful  step  in 
advance.  October  15,  1914,  is  a  date  worthy  of 

135 


136    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

remembrance  and  joyous  celebration.  On  that  day 
the  Clayton  amendment  to  the  Anti-Trust  law  was 
adopted  by  the  American  Congress.  It  contained 
the  statement  that,  uthe  labor  of  a  human  being  is 
not  a  commodity  or  article  of  commerce."  It  is 
the  first  time  in  history  that  this  sentiment  was  ever 
expressed  in  law  by  any  legislative  assembly.  The 
protest  of  the  representatives  of  Alsace-Lorraine 
delivered  in  Berlin  February  18,  1874,  expressed 
the  same  sentiment  in  the  following  words:  "Citi- 
zens possessed  of  souls  and  of  intelligence  are  not 
merchandise  to  be  traded,  and  therefore  it  is  not 
lawful  to  make  them  the  subject  of  a  contract." 
But  the  American  Congress  is  the  first  national  legis- 
lature to  express  this  ideal  in  terms  of  law. 

It  is  significant  of  much,  that  this  sentiment  should 
have  gotten  itself  thus  officially  expressed.  But  it 
is  only  the  merest  beginning,  and  even  as  a  begin- 
ning it  is  one  thing  to  express  it  in  words  and  quite 
a  different  thing  to  operate  it  in  practice.  When 
I  ask  you,  how  many  workmen  are  there  in  your 
factory?  Do  you  not  still  answer,  Two  hundred 
hands?  That's  what  is  wrong  with  your  factory. 
You  are  working  with  pieces  of  men  instead  of  with 
whole  men.  That  is  why  you  are  getting  only  a 
fraction  of  the  production  you  should  be  getting. 

This  is  what  is  the  matter  with  the  whole  indus- 
trial world.  It  has  fractionized  the  workmen.  It 
has  severed  the  connection  between  a  man's  hand 
and  his  brain  and  heart.  This  is  the  basic  cause 


FRACTIONIZING  A  MAN  137 

of  industrial  unrest.  The  remedy  for  it  is  to  remove 
the  cause.  The  problem  before  modern  industry  is 
to  discover  how  it  can  restore  this  connection,  so 
that  head,  heart,  and  hand  will  be  concerted  for 
productive  purposes.  When  this  is  done,  the  indus- 
trial problem  will  be  solved  and  cease  to  exist.  It 
can  easily  be  done,  if  there  is  a  desire  to  do  it. 

There  is  no  hope  of  ever  finding  a  solution  un- 
less we  clearly  perceive  and  once  for  all  eliminate 
the  organic  error,  which  still  continues  to  blind  the 
leaders  of  modern  industry  to  facts  as  they  are.  In 
our  thought  and  speech  and  action,  we  classify  capi- 
tal and  labor  together  as  if  they  were  the  same  kind 
of  thing,  whereas  they  are  essentially  different.  One 
is  a  thing,  the  other  is  not  a  thing  at  all.  Capital 
is  a  thing,  like  land,  or  a  house,  or  an  engine,  or  a 
gold  dollar.  It  is  an  article,  an  instrument,  a  tool, 
a  symbol  of  exchange.  But  labor  is  not  a  thing,  it 
is  the  creative  activity  of  the  brain  and  heart  and 
nerves  of  a  human  being.  To  classify  it  with  capi- 
tal is  a  stark  contradiction  of  the  fact  and  a  stupid 
blunder.  To  include  capital  and  labor  as  like  fac- 
tors, in  the  same  equation  of  our  industrial  problem 
is  like  the  attempt  to  add  together  three  quarts  of 
milk  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile.  The  thing  can't 
be  done.  To  attempt  a  solution  of  the  labor  prob- 
lem on  this  basis  is  to  attempt  the  impossible.  And 
yet  there  are  men  who  try  to  do  it,  and  the  men  who 
are  trying  it  have  appropriated  to  themselves  the 
term  "practical."  Capital  should  be  classified  with 


138    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

wages.  They  are  the  same  kind  of  thing  and  should 
be  treated  exactly  alike  in  every  respect.  When  we 
have  done  that,  we  have  arranged  a  subordinate 
factor  in  industry.  An  important  factor,  it  is  true, 
but  still  only  a  subordinate  and  mechanical  factor. 
The  real  labor  problem  lies  outside  of  either  wages 
or  capital.  Labor  belongs  in  a  wholly  different 
category. 

There  are  three  distinct  stages  in  the  evolution 
of  our  thought  about  labor,  through  which  we  must 
pass  before  we  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  the  fact. 
Since  there  is  no  labor  apart  from  human  activity, 
let  us  for  the  sake  of  brevity  and  clarity  substitute 
the  word  "man"  for  labor. 

The  first  stage  is  to  regard  man  as  a  commodity. 
The  accompaniment  of  this  conception  is  slavery. 
We  have  partially  outgrown  this  conception.  The 
second  stage  is  to  regard  man  as  an  animal.  The 
accompaniment  of  this  conception  is  a  bare  living 
wage,  just  enough  to  keep  the  animal  alive,  and 
charity  in  case  of  extreme  need.  So  long  as  indus- 
try is  organized  in  such  a  way  as  to  permit  men  to 
function  only  as  animals,  both  the  economic  law  and 
the  spiritual  law  will  prevent  them  from  receiving 
more  than  the  bare  cost  of  their  living.  When  men 
go  on  the  assumption  that  they  are  animals,  that's 
the  way  they  will  act  and  live.  It's  an  inescapable 
result  of  the  pig-trough  philosophy.  With  this  con- 
ception sometimes  goes,  and  more  and  more  fre- 
quently, the  effort  to  provide  comfortable  working 


FRACTIONIZING  A  MAN  139 

conditions,  and  even  good  food.  This  is  all  very 
well  and  quite  natural.  It  is  the  way  we  would 
treat  a  mule,  if  we  exercised  good  business  sense. 
If  we  wanted  to  get  efficient  results  from  the  mule, 
it  would  be  wise  to  watch  after  his  food,  and  pay 
some  attention  to  his  physical  condition. 

Nothing  should  be  more  obvious  than  that  we 
must  outgrow  these  two  conceptions;  that  a  work- 
man is  neither  a  commodity,  nor  an  animal.  It  is 
likewise  obvious  that  the  day  for  charity  is  gone 
by  and  must  be  discarded  together  with  the  con- 
ception that  gave  it  birth.  Help  in  emergencies  is 
not  charity,  but  comradeship.  As  a  policy,  charity 
is  a  degradation,  both  to  giver  and  receiver.  At 
the  best  it  is  only  a  palliative,  not  a  cure.  It  is  not 
palliatives,  but  preventions,  that  justice  demands. 
The  only  wise  charity  after  all  is  justice.  The  at- 
tempt to  substitute  charity  for  justice  is  an  insult. 
The  Hebrew  language  has  no  separate  word  for 
charity.  Its  word  for  justice  is  the  symbol  for  both 
ideas.  When  every  language  employs  the  same 
word  for  justice  and  charity  alike,  it  will  be  the  sure 
sign  that  the  practice  of  justice  has  dispensed  with 
the  need  for  charity. 

When  we  have  outgrown  these  two  conceptions, 
then  we  are  in  a  position  to  see  the  fact  and  under- 
stand that  a  workman  is  not  a  hand,  not  a  com- 
modity, not  an  animal;  he  is  a  soul,  that  is,  a  man. 
But  what  is  a  man  and  how  should  a  man  be  treated? 
If  we  can  find  a  true  answer  to  these  questions,  we 


140    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

can  solve  the  labor  question;  otherwise  not.  It's 
a  long  distance  from  a  commodity  to  a  soul,  but  it's 
the  distance  we  must  travel,  if  we  ever  expect  to 
find  a  solution  of  our  problem. 


CHAPTER    III 

MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER" 

f^HE  labor  problem  centers  in  the  man,  who 
•*•  labors.  He  is  the  big  factor  in  economics,  the 
Hamlet  of  the  industrial  drama.  Leaders  of  mod- 
ern industry  have  displayed  extraordinary  ingenuity 
and  inventive  genius  in  the  development  of  machi- 
nery and  the  perfection  of  methods.  It  is  difficult 
to  explain  why  they  have  made  almost  no  attempt 
to  understand  the  human  machine,  the  basic  element 
in  their  whole  enterprise. 

If  I  were  intending  to  deal  with  a  mule,  and  ex- 
pected him  to  work  rather  than  to  kick,  it  is  impor- 
tant that  I  make  a  careful  study  of  the  complexities 
of  mule  nature.  If  I  am  to  get  the  best  results 
from  a  steam  engine,  I  must  inform  myself  about 
its  mechanism,  and  the  science  and  art  essential  to 
its  efficient  operation.  If,  likewise,  I  want  satis- 
factory results  from  the  most  complex  and  highly 
organized  instrument  in  the  universe,  the  human 
creator  of  wealth,  I  must  know  its  psychology.  Just 
as  my  treatment  of  a  steam  engine  must  be  in  har- 
mony with  the  principles  on  which  it  is  constructed, 
so  my  treatment  of  a  man  must  be  in  harmony  with 
the  principles  of  human  nature.  If  I  cannot  get 

141 


142    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

good  results  by  treating  him  like  a  man,  it  is  quite 
certain  I  cannot  by  treating  him  like  a  dog,  or 
worse  still,  like  a  commodity.  This  seems  too  ob- 
vious to  need  stating.  But  it  must  be  stated  and 
re-stated,  because  it  is  the  one  thing  we  have  most 
neglected.  The  obvious  is  always  the  last  thing 
discovered.  For  the  past  one  hundred  fifty  years, 
we  have  addressed  ourselves  seriously  to  every  ele- 
ment in  industry,  except  the  one  most  needful. 
Socrates  said,  "The  true  politics  is  first  of  all  a 
politics  of  the  soul."  The  first  business  of  any 
enterprise  dependent,  as  modern  industry  is,  on  free 
co-operation,  is  to  understand  the  psychology  of  the 
co-operators,  to  know  what  human  nature  is  and 
how  to  treat  it. 

Inasmuch  as  this  is  the  key  to  the  solution  of  the 
economic  problem,  let  us  have  the  courage  to  come 
to  grips  with  it.  Let  me  ask  you  factory  owners 
and  captains  of  industry  a  challenging  question,  and 
insist  on  an  honest  answer.  It  is  this.  What  can 
you  do  with  these  workmen  that  will  do  you  any 
good?  They  annoy  you,  make  you  mad,  do  selfish 
and  stupid  things,  just  as  you  do.  But  in  view  of 
all  the  facts,  whatever  they  may  be,  what  can  you 
do  with  them  that  will  do  you  any  good?  Let  us 
suggest  some  answers. 

You  might  kill  them.  That  has  frequently  been 
done  in  the  past,  legally  and  illegally.  But  that  will 
do  you  no  good,  because  then  you  would  not  have 
men  to  run  your  factories  and  create  your  wealth. 


MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER"  143 

You  might  hate  them.  That  is  a  very  common 
practice.  But  it  will  do  you  no  good,  because  it 
produces  open  strikes,  and  stops  production,  or  it 
produces  silent  strikes  and  decreases  production. 

I  request  my  reader  to  lay  down  the  book  at  this 
point,  and  build  up  a  series  of  answers,  as  many 
as  he  likes,  and  critically  examine  them.  I  challenge 
you  to  be  honest.  If  you  are,  you  will  be  compelled 
to  discard  every  answer  excepting  one.  What  is 
that? 

Well,  I  am  embarrassed  to  say  it.  The  thing 
itself  is  quite  simple  and  clear.  What  embarrasses 
me  is  the  lack  of  a  word,  which  will  carry  it  to  you 
accurately.  We  will  have  to  try  several  terms  until 
we  find  one  which  makes  the  idea  clear.  Assuming 
that  your  sense  of  fair  play  will  induce  you  to  read 
this  chapter  through,  in  order  to  discover  my  mean- 
ing, I  will  dare  to  use  the  word  I  like  best,  but  which 
is  the  most  misunderstood.  The  one  thing,  and  the 
only  thing,  you  can  do  with  these  workmen  that  will 
do  you  any  good,  is  to  love  them. 

You're  shocked?  I  thought  you  would  be.  I 
realize  the  risk  I  run  in  using  this  word,  for  no  one 
knows  what  it  means.  Like  the  words  "politics" 
and  "religion,"  the  word  "love"  has  been  ruined. 
It  means  everything  and  nothing.  It  means  anything 
you  want  to  make  it  mean.  To  me  it  means  some- 
thing very  definite,  but  what  it  means  in  the  minds 
of  my  readers,  I  have  no  means  of  knowing.  Let 
us,  therefore,  give  it  a  content,  so  we  can  continue- 


144    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

with  the  discussion.  In  my  thought,  love  stands  for 
two  basic  ideas,  riveted  together;  voluntary  justice 
and  intelligent  sympathy. 

With  this  definite  content  for  the  term  "love" 
clearly  in  mind,  please  do  not  suppose  that  I  am 
talking  about  a  sentiment.  I'm  doing  nothing  of 
the  kind.  I'm  talking  about  mathematics,  a  rigidly 
accurate  statement  of  fact;  a  scientific  law  of  eco- 
nomics. A  man  is  the  kind  of  creature  that  de- 
mands to  be  treated  on  the  basis  of  the  law  of  love 
or  he  will  make  trouble.  His  psychology  requires 
it.  The  application  of  this  law  will  solve  every 
troublesome  question  in  industry  and  do  it  in  such 
a  way  that  it  will  stay  solved. 

Inasmuch  as  this  is  an  audacious  suggestion, 
audacious  because  of  its  simplicity,  let  us  support  it 
by  testimony  of  witnesses,  who  have  thought  deeply 
on  the  subject,  and  whose  insight  is  everywhere 
acknowledged.  Witness  Tolstoi,  who  said:  "Men 
may  saw  wood  and  hammer  iron  without  love,  but 
they  cannot  handle  men  without  love;  you  cannot 
handle  the  honey  bee  as  you  would  wood  and  iron 
without  injury  to  both  yourself  and  the  bee." 

Witness  one  of  the  keenest  thinkers  and  wisest 
reformers  of  his  day — Jeremy  Bentham,  who  said: 
"The  way  to  be  comfortable  is  to  make  others  com- 
fortable. The  way  to  make  others  comfortable  is 
to  appear  to  love  them.  The  way  to  appear  to  love 
them  is  to  love  them  in  reality." 


MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER"  145 

Witness  Whitman,  who  said : 

Over  the  carnage  rose  prophetic  a  voice, 

Be  not  dishearten'd — Affection  shall  solve  the  problems  of 

Freedom  yet. 

Were  you  looking  to  be  held  together  by  the  lawyers? 
Or  by  an  agreement  on  a  paper?  or  by  arms? 
Nay — nor  the  world,  nor  any  living  thing,  will  so  cohere. 

The  demonstrated  futility  of  force  in  any  form, 
the  repeated  failure  of  agreements  on  paper,  ought 
long  ago  to  have  persuaded  us  to  conclude  that  liv- 
ing things  can  cohere  only  on  the  principle  suggested 
by  Whitman. 

Witness  the  dying  words  of  Albert  Grey,  who 
had  spent  his  life  in  practical  work  for  the  co-opera- 
tive movement :  uYou  know  the  idea  of  those  words 
— 'he  being  dead  yet  speaketh'  ?  A  voice  from  the 
dead  often  gets  a  hearing.  That's  what  I'm  after. 
I  want  you  to  make  my  voice  sound  from  the  grave. 
I  want  to  say  to  the  people,  there  is  a  real  way  out 
of  this  mess  materialism  has  got  us  into.  I've  been 
trying  to  tell  them  so  for  thirty  years.  It's  Christ's 
way.  Mazzini  saw  it.  We've  got  to  give  up  quar- 
reling. We've  got  to  come  together.  We've  got 
to  realize  we're  all  members  of  one  family.  There's 
nothing  can  help  humanity — I'm  perfectly  sure  there 
isn't — perfectly  sure — except  love.  Love's  the  way 
out  and  the  way  up.  That's  my  farewell  to  the 
world." 

Witness  Emerson:  "In  his  lecture  on  'Man  the 
Reformer'  which  was  read  before  the  Mechanics' 


146    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Apprentices'  Association  in  Boston  in  January, 
1841,"  said  Charles  W.  Eliot,  "Emerson  described 
in  the  clearest  manner  the  approaching  strife  be- 
tween laborers  and  employers,  between  poor  and 
rich,  and  pointed  out  the  cause  of  this  strife  in  the 
selfishness,  unkindness  and  mutual  distrust  which 
ran  through  the  community.  He  also  described, 
with  perfect  precision,  the  only  ultimate  remedy — 
namely,  the  sentiment  of  love.  'Love  would  put  a 
new  face  on  this  weary  old  world  in  which  we  dwell 
as  pagans  and  enemies  too  long.  The  virtue  of  this 
principle  in  human  society  in  application  to  great 
interests  is  obsolete  and  forgotten.  But  one  day 
all  men  will  be  lovers;  and  every  calamity  will  be 
dissolved  in  the  universal  sunshine.'  It  is  more  than 
sixty  years  since  those  words  were  uttered,  and  in 
those  years  society  has  had  large  experience  of  in- 
dustrial and  social  strife,  of  its  causes  and  conse- 
quences, and  of  many  attempts  to  remedy  or  soften 
it;  but  all  this  experience  only  goes  to  show  that 
there  is  but  one  remedy  for  these  ills.  It  is  to  be 
found  in  kindness,  good  fellowship,  and  the  affec- 
tions. In  Emerson's  words,  'We  must  be  lovers, 
and  at  once  the  impossible  becomes  possible.'  The 
world  will  wait  long  for  this  remedy,  but  there  is 
no  other." 

Emerson  is  quite  correct  in  believing  that  there 
is  no  other  remedy,  and  the  pressure  of  economic 
necessity  will  lead  the  world  to  accept  it  sooner 
than  he  supposed  they  would.  There  is  a  marked 


MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER"  147 

desire  now  in  many  quarters  to  understand  what 
it  is.  I  fear  that  the  flavor  still  clinging  to  the 
word  "love"  will  betray  many  into  regarding  it  as 
a  sentiment  rather  than  as  an  organic  law  of  life. 

It  is  difficult  even  to  use  the  term  "Golden  Rule," 
although  it  stands  for  a  much  smaller  idea  than  the 
principle  we  are  discussing.  It  is  commonly  sup- 
posed that  the  Golden  Rule  is  an  exalted  standard 
in  the  Christian  view  of  life.  But  it  is  far  from 
being  the  Christian's  ideal.  It  is  no  more  than  a 
simple  rule  of  justice,  ancient  and  widely  recog- 
nized. Jesus  stated  it  as  the  standard  of  justice 
set  up  in  Judaism.  His  rule  of  life  went  far  beyond 
it.  With  him  it  was  not  equality  of  service  but  self- 
sacrificing  service.  Being  no  more  than  a  simple 
rule  of  justice,  it  ought  not  to  be  difficult  to  accept 
the  Golden  Rule  as  a  law  of  economics. 

No  one  will  assert  that  a  man  like  Henry  George 
was  a  sentimentalist.  He  was  an  exact  scientist,  so 
exact  that  it  was  said  in  the  preface  to  the  last  edi- 
tion of  his  book,  "Progress  and  Poverty,"  what 
probably  has  never  been  said  of  any  book,  namely, 
that  no  objection  or  criticism  of  any  detail  of  it  had 
yet  appeared  which  was  not  anticipated  and  an- 
swered in  the  book  itself.  Mr.  George  makes  this 
significant  statement  about  the  Golden  Rule :  "The 
more  you  study  this  question  the  more  you  will  see 
that  the  true  law  of  social  life  is  the  law  of  love, 
the  law  of  liberty,  the  law  of  each  for  all  and  all 
for  each;  that  the  golden  rule  of  morals  is  also  the 


148     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

golden  rule  of  the  science  of  wealth;  that  the  high- 
est expressions  of  religious  truth  include  the  widest 
generalizations  of  political  economy." 

Nevertheless  on  account  of  the  handicap  now 
resting  on  the  word  "love"  and  on  the  term  "Golden 
Rule,"  let  us  state  the  same  thing  in  different  terms. 
We  are  discussing  a  law  of  economics,  which  is  also 
a  sentiment  and  as  such  is  a  creative  element  in 
industry.  But  in  order  to  get  away  as  far  as  pos- 
sible from  the  suggestion  of  dealing  with  a  senti- 
ment alone  let  us  state  it  in  terms  of  mathematics, 
that  is,  in  the  exact  terms  of  rigorous  thinking. 

When  we  say  that  the  only  thing  you  can  do  with 
workmen,  that  will  do  you  any  good,  is  to  love  them 
— love  them,  mark  you,  not  for  their  sakes  but  for 
your  own — the  statement  is  accurate  enough.  But 
it  is  not  generally  recognized  as  accurate.  The 
language  of  mathematics  is.  It  is  the  science  of 
necessary  conclusions.  Therefore,  let  us  say  that 
the  only  thing  you  can  do  with  a  workman,  that  will 
do  you  any  good,  is  to  treat  him  like  a  man.  This 
seems  definite  enough,  but  it  isn't.  We  must  ob- 
viously make  the  further  inquiry,  what  is  a  man, 
else  how  shall  we  know  what  treatment  is  appro- 
priate for  him?  This  seems  like  an  easy  question, 
but  it  isn't.  We  have  been  asking  it  for  centuries. 

One  day  on  the  streets  of  Athens,  Aristotle  was 
walking,  so  absorbed  in  his  own  thinking,  that  un- 
intentionally he  ran  into  a  young  man  coming  rap- 
idly from  the  opposite  direction.  The  impact 


MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER"  149 

dislodged  the  young  man's  hat  and  also  his  dignity. 
Being  a  well-dressed  and  self-conscious  young  gen- 
tleman, he  was  much  annoyed.  He  expressed  him- 
self in  vigorous  terms,  ending  his  complaint  of  the 
unknown  stranger's  carelessness  with  the  question, 
"Who  are  you,  anyway?"  To  this  the  great  phi- 
losopher answered,  "My  friend,  I  would  give 
worlds,  if  I  knew  the  answer  to  your  question."  A 
clear  answer  was  made  to  it  about  two  thousand 
years  ago  by  the  greatest  democrat  in  history,  but 
His  teaching  has  been  so  obscured  and  distorted, 
that  his  answer  cannot  with  safety  be  used  in  this 
connection.  We  must  therefore,  seek  a  statement 
of  His  answer  in  modern  scientific  terms. 

Fortunately  a  book  has  this  year  appeared,  which 
does  this  service  for  us.  It  is  "Manhood  of  Hu- 
manity," by  Count  Alfred  Korzybski,  a  mathema- 
tician. It  was  written  to  say  one  thing,  but  that 
one  thing  is  so  simple,  so  profound,  so  creative  in 
its  effects,  so  far-reaching  in  its  implications,  and 
all  said  so  impressively,  that  the  reader  is  at  once 
under  profound  and  personal  obligation  to  the  au- 
thor for  saying  it.  It  is  an  idea,  which  can  only 
be  described  as  a  rare  illumination  shedding  light 
on  a  dozen  perplexities  at  one  flash.  One's  only 
regret  in  reading  the  book  is  that  he  shall  never 
again  enjoy  the  thrill  of  reading  it  for  the  first  time. 

The  author's  aim  is  to  do,  what  he  says  has  never 
before  been  done,  namely,  accurately  define  what  a 
man  is.  His  golden  definition  of  a  man  is  that  he 


150    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

is  "a  time-binder."  This  is  not  a  theory,  but  the 
statement,  in  mathematical  terms,  of  a  fact  newly 
discovered.  It  is  man's  distinguishing  mark  that 
he  belongs  to  the  time-binding  class  of  life.  A  plant 
appropriates  one  kind  of  energy,  converts  it  into 
another  and  stores  it  up.  It  is  a  storage  battery 
for  solar  energy.  Plants  are  defined  as  the  energy- 
binding  class  of  life.  An  animal  uses  the  plants  as 
food,  which  in  animals  undergo  a  further  transfor- 
mation into  higher  forms.  The  animal  has  freedom 
and  power.  He  lives  and  acts  and  moves  about  in 
space.  Animals  are  defined  as  the  space-binding 
class  of  life.  But  man,  while  he  has  the  space-bind- 
ing capacity,  has  also  a  remarkable  capacity  peculiar 
to  himself.  He  appropriates  the  labors  of  the  past, 
uses  past  experiences  as  spiritual  capital  for  develop- 
ment in  the  present,  is  regulated  by  inherited  wis- 
dom, makes  the  past  live  in  the  present  and  the 
present  for  the  future,  is  the  inheritor  of  by-gone 
ages,  the  trustee  of  posterity.  A  human  being  is 
defined  as  the  time-binding  class  of  life.  If  he 
wants  to  use  an  idea,  he  can  go  back  to  his  child- 
hood for  it,  or  go  back  to  his  father  for  it,  or  go 
back  to  Plato  for  it.  He  is,  as  Emerson  said,  a 
quotation  from  his  ancestors.  Man  looks  before 
and  after,  said  Shelley,  and  pines  for  what  is  not. 

The  picture  of  Robinson  Crusoe  writing  in  his 
Journal,  is  a  significant  picture  of  the  universal  and 
essential  nature  of  man.  Why  does  this  man,  con- 
tending alone  upon  an  island  with  the  raw  materials 


MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER"  151 

of  nature  for  a  bare  existence,  feel  the  necessity  of 
keeping  a  journal  to  connect  himself  with  the  past 
and  the  future?  The  reason  is  obvious.  He  is  a 
time-binder.  An  animal  keeps  no  journal;  a  time- 
binder  does. 

This  conception  of  man,  which  Count  Korzybski 
has  illuminated  and  made  to  live,  is  revolutionary 
in  its  transforming  effect  in  many  fields  of  thought 
and  activity.  By  calling  a  man  a  time-binder,  we 
center  attention  on  his  essential  and  distinguishing 
characteristic.  He  is  a  mind,  a  spirit,  a  creator,  a 
time-binder.  He  must  be  treated  for  what  he  is. 
It  becomes  at  once  obvious  that  a  creature  of  this 
kind  cannot  be  transformed  into  a  machine,  a  cog 
in  a  wheel,  a  commodity,  an  animal.  As  soon  as 
such  an  attempt  is  made,  there  occurs  inside  of  him 
a  civil  war,  which  gives  him  no  peace.  That  he 
rebels  against  it  and  goes  on  strike  is  not  his  fault, 
but  God's,  for  God  made  him  to  be  a  time-binder. 
A  time-binder  cannot  consent  with  himself  to  be  an 
animal  or  to  be  treated  as  one.  He  may  be  tempted 
into  a  bargain  to  sell  his  soul  for  a  mess  of  pottage, 
but  the  bargain  can  never  be  final.  The  stars  in 
their  courses  are  against  it. 

Whether  we  say  that  a  workman  is  a  soul  and 
must  be  loved,  or  whether  we  prefer  the  language 
of  mathematics  and  say  that  he  is  an  exponential 
function  of  time  and  must  be  treated  like  a  man, 
it  makes  no  difference,  provided  we  think  in  terms 
of  the  fact  itself.  It  is  highly  significant  that  a  man 


152    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

like  Korzybski,  starting  from  the  standpoint  of 
mathematics  and  thinking  in  exact  terms,  and  we 
starting  from  the  standpoint  of  the  social  sciences 
and  thinking  in  terms  of  human  welfare,  have  ar- 
rived at  exactly  the  same  point,  and  stand  with 
reverence  before  the  same  illuminating  fact,  which 
we  agree  is  the  only  possible  way  of  escape  for 
modern  industry.  This  is  unsolicited  confirmation 
of  one  science  by  another.  When  men  of  different 
sciences  see  deep  enough  and  think  in  terms  of  fact 
instead  of  theory,  they  unexpectedly  discover  that 
their  feet  are  planted  on  the  same  path. 

This  fact  is  so  central  in  any  attempted  solution 
of  the  economic  problem,  that  for  the  sake  of  added 
emphasis  and  clarity,  I  state  it  in  terms  of  a  Socratic 
dialogue,  which  is  at  once  popular  and  precise : 

DIALOGUE 

SOCRATES  ALCIBIADES 

Soc.  Hold,  now,  with  whom  do  you  at  present  con- 
verse? Is  it  not  with  me? 

ALC.    Yes. 

Soc.     And  I  also  with  you? 

ALC.    Yes. 

Soc.     It  is  Socrates  then  who  speaks? 

ALC.     Assuredly. 

Soc.     And  Alcibiades  who  listens? 

ALC.    Yes. 

Soc.     Is  it  not  with  language  that  Socrates  speaks? 

ALC.     What,  now?    Of  course. 

Soc.  To  converse  and  to  use  language,  are  not,  then, 
these  the  same? 


MAN  AS  A  "TIME-BINDER"  153 

ALC.     The  very  same. 

Soc.  But  he  who  uses  a  thing  and  the  thing  used — Are 
these  not  different? 

ALC.     What  do  you  mean? 

Soc.  A  currier — does  he  not  use  a  cutting  knife  and 
other  instruments? 

ALC.     Yes. 

Soc.  And  the  man  who  uses  a  cutting  knife,  is  he  dif- 
ferent from  the  instrument  he  uses? 

ALC.     Most  certainly. 

Soc.  In  like  manner,  the  lyrist,  is  he  not  different  from 
the  lyre  he  plays  on? 

ALC.     Undoubtedly. 

Soc.  This,  then,  is  what  I  asked  you  just  now — does  not 
he  who  uses  a  thing  seem  to  you  always  different  from  the 
thing  used? 

ALC.     Very  different. 

Soc.  But  the  currier,  does  he  cut  with  his  instruments 
alone,  or  also  with  his  hands? 

ALC.     Also  with  his  hands. 

Soc.     He  then  uses  his  hands? 

ALC.    Yes. 

Soc.     And  in  his  work  he  uses  also  his  eyes? 

ALC.    Yes. 

Soc.  We  are  agreed,  then,  that  he  who  uses  a  thing,  and 
the  thing  used,  are  different? 

ALC.     We  are. 

Soc.  The  currier  and  lyrist  are,  therefore,  different  from 
the  hands  and  eyes  with  which  they  work  ? 

ALC.     So  it  seems. 

Soc.     Now,  then,  does  not  a  man  use  his  whole  body? 

ALC.     Unquestionably. 

Soc.  But  we  are  agreed  that  he  who  uses  and  that  which 
is  used  are  different? 

ALC.    Yes. 

Soc.     A  man  is  therefore  different  from  his  body? 


154    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

ALC.  So  I  think. 

Soc.  What,  then,  is  the  man? 

ALC.  I  cannot  say. 

Soc.  You  can  at  least  say  that  the  man  is  that  which 

uses  the  body? 

ALC.  True. 

Soc.  Now,  does  any  thing  use  the  body  but  the  mind  ? 

ALC.  Nothing. 

Soc.  The  mind  is  therefore  the  man? 

ALC.  The  mind  alone. 


CHAPTER    IV 

A   MAY-DAY  PARTY 

TN  the  accurate  terms  of  mathematics,  the  root 
cause  of  the  disastrous  civil  war  in  modern  in- 
dustry is  the  fact  that  both  owners  and  workmen 
have  acted  like  space-binders,  that  is,  like  animals, 
by  which  policy  they  have  inflicted  on  themselves 
inexcusable  losses  and  defeated  even  their  own  ani- 
mal purposes.  The  obvious  solution  is  to  remove 
the  cause.  This  cause  can  only  be  removed  by  con- 
vincing both  owners  and  men,  that  it  is  to  their 
self-interest  to  abandon  their  present  policy,  and  to 
substitute  the  policy  of  acting  like  time-binders,  that 
is  like  brother  men,  allies  in  the  same  enterprise. 

The  contrasted  results  issuing  from  the  space- 
binding  and  time-binding  policies  are  so  tragically 
great,  that  the  preference  for  the  space-binding 
policy  brings  a  serious  indictment  against  the  sanity 
of  any  men  who  choose  it.  This  contrast  has  never 
been  more  clearly  or  briefly  described  than  by  the 
parable  of  a  May-Day  party  in  John  Ruskin's  Dub- 
lin address  on  "The  Mystery  of  Life  and  Its  Arts," 
which  is  probably  the  best  document  from  his  pen. 
Inasmuch  as  this  is  the  most  effective  popular  state- 
ment of  this  contrast  anywhere  in  literature,  so  far 
as  I  know,  I  quote  the  parable  in  this  connection: 

155 


156    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

"But  there  is  yet  a  third  class,  to  whom  we  may 
turn — the  wise  practical  men.  Men,  whose  hearts 
and  hopes  are  wholly  in  this  present  world,  from 
whom,  therefore,  we  may  surely  learn,  at  least,  how, 
at  present,  conveniently  to  live  in  it.  What  will 
they  say  to  us,  or  show  us  by  example  ?  They  know 
the  world,  surely;  and  what  is  the  mystery  of  life 
to  us,  is  none  to  them.  They  can  surely  show  us 
how  to  live,  while  we  live,  and  to  gather  out  of 
the  present  world  what  is  best. 

"I  think  I  can  best  tell  you  their  answer,  by  telling 
you  a  dream  I  had  once.  For  though  I  am  no  poet, 
I  have  dreams  sometimes : — I  dreamed  I  was  at  a 
child's  May-Day  party,  in  which  every  means  of 
entertainment  had  been  provided  for  them,  by  a 
wise  and  kind  host.  It  was  in  a  stately  house,  with 
beautiful  gardens  attached  to  it;  and  the  children 
had  been  set  free  in  the  rooms  and  gardens,  with 
no  care  whatever  but  how  to  pass  their  afternoon 
rejoicingly.  They  did  not,  indeed,  know  much  about 
what  was  to  happen  next  day;  and  some  of  them, 
I  thought,  were  a  little  frightened,  because  there 
was  a  chance  of  their  being  sent  to  a  new  school 
where  there  were  examinations;  but  they  kept  the 
thoughts  of  that  out  of  their  heads  as  well  as  they 
could,  and  resolved  to  enjoy  themselves.  The 
house,  I  said,  was  in  a  beautiful  garden,  and  in  the 
garden  were  all  kinds  of  flowers;  sweet,  grassy 
banks  for  rest;  and  smooth  lawns  for  play;  and 
pleasant  streams  and  woods;  and  rocky  places  for 


A  MAY-DAY  PARTY  157 

climbing.  And  the  children  were  happy  for  a  little 
while,  but  presently  they  separated  themselves  into 
parties;  and  then  each  party  declared  it  would  have 
a  piece  of  the  garden  for  its  own,  and  that  none  of 
the  others  should  have  anything  to  do  with  that 
piece.  Next,  they  quarreled  violently  which  pieces 
they  would  have;  and  at  last  the  boys  took  up  the 
thing,  as  boys  should  do,  'practically,'  and  fought 
in  the  flower-beds  till  there  was  hardly  a  flower  left 
standing;  then  they  trampled  down  each  other's 
bits  of  the  garden  out  of  spite;  and  the  girls  cried 
till  they  could  cry  no  more ;  and  so  they  all  lay  down 
at  last  breathless  in  the  ruin,  and  waited  for  the  time 
when  they  were  to  be  taken  home  in  the  evening. 

"Meanwhile,  the  children  in  the  house  had  been 
making  themselves  happy  also  in  their  manner. 
For  them,  there  had  been  provided  every  kind  of 
indoor  pleasure :  there  was  music  for  them  to  dance 
to;  and  the  library  was  open,  with  all  manner  of 
amusing  books ;  and  there  was  a  museum  full  of  the 
most  curious  shells,  and  animals,  and  birds;  and 
there  was  a  workshop,  with  lathes  and  carpenters' 
tools,  for  the  ingenious  boys;  and  there  were  pretty 
fantastic  dresses,  for  the  girls  to  dress  in;  and  there 
were  microscopes,  and  kaleidoscopes;  and  whatever 
toys  a  child  could  fancy;  and  a  table,  in  the  dining- 
room,  loaded  with  everything  nice  to  eat. 

"But,  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  it  struck  two  or 
three  of  the  more  'practical'  children,  that  they 
would  like  some  of  the  brass-headed  nails  that 


158    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

studded  the  chairs;  and  so  they  set  to  work  to  pull 
them  out.  Presently,  the  others,  who  were  reading, 
or  looking  at  shells,  took  a  fancy  to  do  the  like ;  and, 
in  a  little  while,  all  the  children,  nearly,  were  sprain^ 
ing  their  fingers  in  pulling  out  brass-headed  nails. 
With  all  that  they  could  pull  out,  they  were  not  satis- 
fied and  then,  everybody  wanted  some  of  somebody 
else's.  And  at  last,  the  really  practical  and  sensible 
ones  declared,  that  nothing  was  of  any  real  conse- 
quence, that  afternoon,  except  to  get  plenty  of  brass- 
headed  nails;  and  that  the  books,  and  the  cakes,  and 
the  microscopes  were  of  no  use  at  all  in  themselves, 
but  only,  if  they  could  be  exchanged  for  nail-heads. 
And  at  last  they  began  to  fight  for  nail-heads,  as 
the  others  fought  for  the  bits  of  garden.  Only  here 
and  there,  a  despised  one  shrank  away  into  a  corner, 
and  tried  to  get  a  little  quiet  with  a  book,  in  the 
midst  of  the  noise;  but  all  the  practical  ones  thought 
of  nothing  else  but  counting  nail-heads  all  the  after- 
noon— even  though  they  knew  they  would  not  be 
allowed  to  carry  so  much  as  one  brass  knob  away 
with  them.  But  no — it  was — 'Who  has  most  nails  ? 
I  have  a  hundred,  and  you  have  fifty;  or,  I  have  a 
thousand,  and  you  have  two.  I  must  have  as  many 
as  you  before  I  leave  the  house,  or  I  cannot  pos- 
sibly go  home  in  peace.'  At  last,  they  made  so 
much  noise  that  I  awoke,  and  thought  to  myself, 
'What  a  false  dream  that  is,  of  children/'  The 
child  is  the  father  of  the  man;  and  wiser.  Children 
never  do  such  foolish  things.  Only  men  do." 


CHAPTER   V 

WHOSE    BUSINESS   IS  THIS? 

T5UT,  argues  the  typical  factory  owner,  does  not 
••^  the  adoption  of  this  manhood  principle  as  a 
business  policy  mean  a  radical  change  in  the  organ- 
ization of  modern  business?  Does  it  not  mean,  that 
I  must  put  the  creative  impulses  in  the  first  place 
and  the  possessive  impulses  in  the  second  place,  that 
my  aim  would  have  to  be  production  for  use  instead 
of  production  for  profit,  that  I  would  have  to  square 
my  business  methods  to  the  ideals  of  the  community, 
which  would  thus  attempt  to  interfere  with  my  busi- 
ness? Whose  business  is  this?  Is  it  not  my  own? 
And  is  not  private  profit  the  only  conceivable  motive 
on  which  business  can  be  conducted?  I  regard  my 
business  solely  as  a  means  of  making  money,  and 
not  as  a  public  service  enterprise. 

This  is  exactly  the  position  taken  by  Marley  in 
Dicken's  Christmas  Carol.  He  was  a  typical  bus- 
iness man  of  his  day,  as  you  are  of  yours.  This 
is  the  dominating  opinion  in  the  industrial  and  busi- 
ness world  at  present.  A  widely-used  textbook  on 
political  economy,  by  a  professor  in  a  New  Eng- 
land college,  stated  it  as  the  accepted  doctrine  that 
"the  ground  on  which  men  trade  is  self-interest," 

159 


160    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

and  the  author  volunteered  the  further  dogmatic 
opinion,  that  "no  other  motive  is  appropriate." 
College  textbooks  accurately  reflect  the  common 
opinion,  and  this  one  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the 
characteristic  business  standard  of  our  day. 

But  when  the  ethical  camouflage,  which  had  dis- 
torted business  for  Marley,  was  removed,  and  he 
stood  face  to  face  with  the  naked  and  eternal  facts 
as  they  are,  his  ghost  by  a  strenuous  effort  came 
back  to  tell  his  skinflint  partner,  Scrooge,  the  great 
discovery  he  had  made,  namely:  "Mankind  was  my 
business,  the  common  welfare  was  my  business." 
What  he  discovered  was  that  legitimate  business  is 
not  the  pursuit  of  private  interests  only,  but  the 
supply  of  services  for  the  satisfaction  of  human 
needs,  that  the  golden  rule  is  a  law  of  economics. 
The  issue  you  raise  is  precisely  the  issue  between 
the  conflicting  points  of  view  of  the  liberated  Mar- 
ley,  and  the  skinflint,  Scrooge.  It  is  a  single,  clear- 
cut,  moral  issue.  No  policy  can  be  economically 
sound  which  is  morally  wrong. 

It  is  an  irrepressible  issue.  Any  attempt  to  side- 
step it  will  be  futile.  When  you  ask,  "Whose  busi- 
ness is  this?"  implying  that  it  is  your  own,  and  you 
have  the  right  to  do  as  you  please  with  it,  we  answer 
that  your  business  is  a  community  concern.  Your 
right  ends  where  injury  from  your  business  to  com- 
munity begins.  Crusoe  was  free  to  shoot  in  any 
direction  on  his  island  until  Friday  came.  Then 
there  was  one  direction  in  which  he  had  no  right 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  161 

to  shoot.  His  liberty  ended  where  Friday's  rights 
began.  The  private  war  between  owners  and  work- 
men of  a  factory  over  a  division  of  profits  may  and 
frequently  does  injure  seriously  the  good  name  of 
a  town  and  depreciate  property  values  in  the  entire 
community.  In  such  a  case,  the  community  has  not 
only  a  right,  but  a  duty,  to  bring  pressure  on  both 
parties  and  compel  them  to  end  the  conflict. 

What  makes  your  business  to  be  in  particular  a 
community  concern  is  the  fact  that  your  workmen 
are  also  citizens.  This  is  the  significant  thing,  which 
has  happened  during  the  past  one  hundred  fifty 
years,  and  it  is  this  fact  which  constitutes  the  basic 
cause  of  the  present  industrial  unrest  throughout 
the  world.  If  you  will  stop  referring  to  your  work- 
men as  "numbers"  or  as  "hands"  and  begin  to  ad- 
dress them  as  "Citizen  Brown,"  "Citizen  Jones," 
you  will  at  once  discover  that  you  have  raised  the 
critical  question  confronting  modern  industry.  It 
would  no  doubt  be  embarrassing,  if  some  morning 
in  a  typical  mill,  the  managers  began  to  use  the  term 
"citizen"  in  addressing  the  workmen,  because  it 
would  imply  the  necessity  of  installing  a  new  method 
of  treating  this  "citizen,"  if  that  is  what  he  is.  We 
have  now  arrived  at  the  point  where  it  is  obvious 
that  unrest  in  industry  will  never  cease  until  we  can 
call  workmen  "citizens"  without  embarrassment. 

The  charter  of  our  republic  reads  "We,  the 
people."  By  it  we  did  not  mean  "we,  the  farmers," 
or  "we,  the  bankers,"  or  "we,  the  laborers,"  or  "we, 


162    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  capitalists."  We  meant  "we,  the  people,"  that 
is,  all  of  us,  and  our  aim  is  to  make  this  not  a  con- 
ventional phrase,  but  a  spiritual  and  visible  fact. 
We,  the  people,  do  not  take  sides  in  the  civil  war 
between  owners  and  workmen.  We  take  a  side  big- 
ger than  either,  that  is,  the  side  of  the  community; 
the  public,  which  includes  both  of  them.  We,  the 
people,  therefore,  have  a  stake  in  the  workmen 
employed  in  your  factory.  Whatever  its  material 
prosperity  may  be,  America  as  a  society  must  be 
accounted  a  failure  in  so  far  as  it  does  not  afford 
every  one  of  its  members  a  chance  to  make  a  success 
of  himself,  because  the  making  of  men  and  women 
is  the  mission  of  America.  We  cannot  stand  by 
unconcerned  and  permit  any  factory  to  undo  our 
work  and  dehumanize  the  men,  whom  it  is  our  chief 
purpose  to  humanize.  We  cannot  allow  a  citizen 
to  be  transformed  into  "a  low-browed,  stunted,  hag- 
gard man."  We  must  know  whether  your  mill  or 
mine  is  making  or  unmaking  men. 

The  chief  danger  arising  from  the  use  of  machi- 
nery has  consisted  in  its  damage  to  human  life. 
This  danger  is  not  decreasing,  but  increasing.  Dur- 
ing the  past  twenty  years,  automatic  tools  and 
machinery  have  come  into  common  use,  especially 
in  the  making  of  automobiles.  The  automatic 
machine  reduces  the  need  for  skill,  produces  little 
or  no  mental  reaction,  can  be  operated  by  a  child 
as  well  as  by  an  adult.  Mr.  Arthur  Pound,  who 
has  written  effectively  about  it  in  a  recent  Atlantic 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  163 

Monthly,  calls  it  "the  Iron  Man."  The  far-reach- 
ing effects  of  this  iron  man  in  the  social  and  indus- 
trial world  are  serious  and  manifold.  The  particu- 
lar damage  with  which  we  are  here  concerned,  is 
the  deterioration  produced  in  human  nature.  Mr. 
Pound  graphically  describes  it  in  the  following  pas- 
sage: 

"The  pockets  of  these  children  are  full  of  money 
at  an  age  when  their  fathers  earned  less  than  a 
living  wage  as  apprentices.  They  are  economically 
independent  of  home  and  social  control.  They  have 
the  eternal  belief  of  youth  that  the  preceding  gen- 
eration is  fossilized,  and  the  buying  power  to  act 
upon  their  belief.  They  are  foot-loose  to  go  wher- 
ever automatic  machines  are  turning.  They  can 
buy  their  pleasures,  and  they  do.  They  can  afford 
to  flout  age  and  authority;  they  do.  Their  very 
active  minds  have  no  background,  and  feel  the  need 
of  none.  They  have  no  conception  of  the  cost  of 
civilization;  no  standard  of  reference  by  which  to 
judge  social  and  political  questions.  They  have  not 
even  lived  long  enough  to  learn  the  simple  truth 
that  common  sense  and  wisdom  spring  from  the 
same  root.  With  far  greater  need  for  early  thrift 
than  their  elders,  because  their  effective  economic 
life  may  be  shorter,  they  spurn  the  homely  virtue 
of  economy.  They  buy  pleasures,  buy  companions, 
buy  glad  raiment;  they  try — desperately — to  buy 
happiness.  And  fail." 

The  automatic  machine  is  typical  of  our  whole 


164    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

social  order  in  its  fundamental  effect  on  the  char- 
acter of  our  boys  and  girls,  out  of  whom  citizens 
are  made.  What  it  does  is  to  make  a  radical  change 
in  their  character,  and  not  for  the  better.  It  has 
produced  a  new  type  of  boy.  It  is  the  sensory 
type,  instead  of  the  motor  type.  That  is,  he  is  a 
boy  whose  senses  are  largely  developed.  He  must 
have  entertainment  which  appeals  to  his  senses.  He 
demands  exciting  pleasures.  But  his  motor  powers 
are  weakened.  He  does  not  know  how  to  use  his 
will.  He  lacks  individual  initiative.  Educators  in 
preparatory  schools  and  colleges  are  becoming  seri- 
ously distressed  over  this  type  of  character.  He  is 
the  boy  who  will  sit  in  the  grandstand,  but  he  will 
not  play  ball  himself.  He  wants  to  be  operated 
upon,  but  he  himself  will  not  operate.  He  is  the 
type  of  boy  who  will  by  and  by  shun  the  respon- 
sibilities of  marriage.  They  are  too  heavy  for  him. 
He  has  not  been  accustomed  to  bear  responsibilities. 
He  has  been  accustomed  to  having  things  done  for 
him.  He  is  over-socialized.  He  has  too  much 
environment. 

To  stop  this  process  of  deterioration,  a  return 
must  somehow  be  made  to  nature,  to  the  soil,  to  a 
sense  of  reality  acquired  through  a  first  hand  con- 
tact with  actualities.  David  Grayson  in  his  "Adven- 
tures in  Contentment"  has  well  stated  this  defect 
of  our  modern  life.  "It  comes  to  me,"  he  says, 
"as  the  wonder  of  wonders,  these  spring  days,  how 
surely  everything,  spiritual  as  well  as  material,  pro- 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  165 

ceeds  out  of  the  earth.  I  have  times  of  sheer  Pa- 
ganism, when  I  could  bow  and  touch  my  face  to 
the  warm  bare  soil.  We  are  so  often  ashamed  of 
the  earth — the  soil  of  it,  the  sweat  of  it,  the  good 
common  coarseness  of  it.  To  us  in  our  fine  raiment 
and  soft  manners,  it  seems  indelicate.  Instead  of 
seeking  that  association  with  the  earth,  which  is  the 
renewal  of  life,  we  devise  ourselves  distant  palaces 
and  seek  strange  pleasures.  How  often  and  sadly 
we  repeat  the  life  story  of  the  yellow  dodder  of  the 
moist  lanes  of  my  lower  farm.  It  springs  up  fresh 
and  clean  from  the  earth  itself,  and  spreads  its 
clinging  viny  stems  over  the  hospitable  wild  balsam 
and  golden  rod.  In  a  week's  time,  having  reached 
the  warm  sunshine  of  the  upper  air,  it  forgets  its 
humble  beginnings.  Its  roots  wither  swiftly  and 
die  out,  but  the  sickly  yellow  stems  continue  to  flour- 
ish and  spread,  drawing  their  nourishment  not  from 
the  soil  itself,  but  by  strangling  and  sucking  the  life 
juices  of  the  hosts  on  which  it  feeds.  I  have  seen 
whole  byways  covered  thus  with  yellow  dodder — 
rootless,  leafless,  parasitic — reaching  up  to  the  sun- 
light, quite  cutting  off  and  smothering  the  plants, 
which  gave  it  life.  A  week  or  two  it  flourishes  and 
then  most  of  it  perishes  miserably.  So  many  of  us 
come  to  be  like  that;  so  much  of  our  civilization  is 
like  that.  Men  and  women  there  are — the  pity  of 
it — who,  eating  plentifully  have  never  known  a 
moment's  real  life  of  their  own.  Lying  up  to  the 
sun  in  warmth  and  comfort — but  leafless — they  do 


166    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

not  think  of  the  hosts  under  them,  smothered,  stran- 
gled, starved.  They  take  nothing  at  first  hand. 
They  experience  described  emotion,  and  think  pre- 
pared thoughts.  They  live  not  in  life,  but  in  printed 
reports  of  life.  They  gather  the  odour  of  odours, 
not  the  odour  itself;  they  do  not  hear,  they  over- 
hear. A  poor,  sad,  second-rate  existence." 

The  natural  tendency  in  the  use  of  machinery 
reaches  its  climax  in  the  automatic  machine.  The 
true  order  of  things  is  reversed.  The  machine  does 
not  assist  the  workman;  the  workman  assists  the 
machine.  It  requires  little  skill,  it  calls  forth  no 
initiative,  it  produces  a  dodder  type  of  man.  Here 
again  is  exhibited  the  challenge,  which  "Robinson 
Crusoe"  makes  to  modern  industry,  and  which  the 
nation  must  meet,  if  it  expects  to  survive.  In  the 
ante-machinery  days,  Crusoe  was  in  first  hand  con- 
tact with  realities  and  real  processes. 

The  type  of  man  which  these  conditions  produced, 
as  well  as  the  conditions  themselves  are  represented 
in  Longfellow's  poem,  "The  Village  Blacksmith." 
It  was  a  condition  in  which  the  individual  was  all 
important.  Today  the  individual  is  lost  in  the  mass. 
Trades  unions  are  dealt  with  in  the  mass.  The 
proprietor  considers  his  men  in  the  mass.  The  com- 
ing of  the  factory,  the  growth  of  towns  and  cities, 
which  the  factory  fostered,  and  the  specialization  of 
industry,  in  which  each  individual  has  been  forced 
to  limit  himself  to  one  small  specialty,  has  done 
the  individual  a  great  wrong,  weakened  his  man- 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  167 

hood  and  limited  his  whole  outlook.  uTo-day  one 
son  of  the  village  blacksmith  is  nailing  machine- 
made  horseshoes  on  with  machine-made  nails,  and 
repairing  for  farmers  iron-work  which  is  wrought 
elsewhere.  The  other  sons  have  gone  into  town  and 
are  factory  hands.  One  worked  in  the  fluff-filled 
air  of  a  cotton  mill  and  slept  in  a  dark  bedroom. 
He  died  of  consumption."  On  the  farm  a  man  of 
necessity  becomes  an  all-round  man.  In  the  factory 
he  becomes  the  one  bit  of  machinery,  which  has  not 
yet  been  invented. 

It  was  for  this  reason  that  Rousseau  with  keen 
foresight,  perceived  the  educational  value  of  "Rob- 
inson Crusoe"  for  our  modern  industrial  world. 
He  said:  "Since  we  must  have  books,  there  is  one 
which,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  most  excellent  treatise  on 
natural  education.  This  is  the  first  my  Emilius  shall 
read;  his  whole  library  shall  long  consist  of  this 
work  only,  which  shall  preserve  an  eminent  rank  to 
the  very  last.  It  shall  be  the  text  to  which  all  our 
conversations  on  natural  science  are  to  serve  only 
as  a  comment.  It  shall  be  our  guide  during  our 
progress  to  maturity  of  judgment;  and  so  long  as 
our  taste  is  not  adulterated,  the  perusal  of  this  book 
shall  afford  us  pleasure.  And  what  surprising  book 
is  this?  Is  it  Aristotle?  Is  is  Pliny?  Is  it  Buffon? 
No;  it  is  'Robinson  Crusoe.'  The  value  and  im- 
portance of  the  various  arts  are  ordinarily  esti- 
mated, not  according  to  their  real  utility,  but  by 
the  gratification  which  they  administer  to  the  fan- 


168    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

tastic  desires  of  mankind.  But  Emilius  shall  be 
taught  to  view  them  in  a  different  light;  'Robinson 
Crusoe'  shall  teach  him  to  value  the  stock  of  an 
ironmonger  above  that  of  the  most  magnificent  toy- 
shop in  Europe." 

We  cannot,  of  course,  return  to  the  natural  con- 
dition of  things,  as  Rousseau  urged  that  we  should 
do,  and  discard  machinery,  because  this  would  be 
like  throwing  out  the  baby  with  the  bath.  But  the 
effect  of  wage-slavery  on  character  and  the  deterio- 
ration of  human  nature  caused  by  slavery  to  machi- 
nery, leads  us  straight  to  the  heart  of  the  question 
we  are  discussing.  We  must  make  no  mistake  as 
to  what  the  question  is,  if  we  are  to  discover  what 
it  is  that  we  must  do.  The  fact  is  very  little  realized 
as  yet  that  there  can  be  no  real  freedom,  except 
where  there  is  manual  labor  on  like  terms.  Under 
the  slavery  system  in  the  South,  the  white  masters 
were  quite  as  much  enslaved  as  were  the  negroes, 
and  when  slavery  was  abolished  the  whites'  as  well 
as  the  blacks  were  left  helpless  and  dependent,  un- 
able to  do  for  themselves.  Servility  destroys  both 
the  spirit  of  independence  and  democracy  and  it 
still  survives  in  our  social  life.  Maria  Montessori, 
in  her  remarkable  book  on  education,  points  out 
with  great  clearness  the  significance  of  this  fact. 

She  shows  that  our  servants  are  not  our  depen- 
dents; rather,  it  is  we  who  are  dependent  upon 
them;  that  it  is  not  possible  to  accept  universally, 
as  a  part  of  our  social  structure,  such  a  deep  human 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  169 

error  as  servitude  without  feeling  the  general  ef- 
fects of  it  in  the  form  of  moral  inferiority.  "We 
often  believe  ourselves  to  be  independent  simply 
because  no  one  commands  us,  and  because  we  com- 
mand others,  but  the  nobleman  who  needs  to  call  a 
servant  to  his  aid  is  really  a  dependent  through  his 
own  inferiority.  The  paralytic  who  cannot  take  off 
his  boots  because  of  a  pathological  fact  and  the 
prince  who  dare  not  take  them  off  because  of  a  social 
fact,  are  in  reality  reduced  to  the  same  condition. 
In  reality,  he  who  is  served  is  limited  in  his  inde- 
pendence. This  concept  will  be  the  foundation  of 
the  dignity  of  the  man  of  the  future :  'I  do  not  wish 
to  be  served,  because  I  am  not  an  impotent,'  and 
this  idea  must  be  gained  before  men  can  feel  them- 
selves to  be  really  free."  The  far-reaching  effects 
of  work  for  one's  self  cannot  be  too  much  empha- 
sized. It  is  impotence  due  to  a  lack  of  experience 
in  manual  labor  that  mostly  produces  the  domineer- 
ing spirit  of  the  taskmaster.  The  tyranical  spirit 
is  usually  due  to  helplessness.  Independence,  self- 
development,  a  friendly  spirit,  the  sense  of  soli- 
darity, which  result  from  manual  labor  are  cardinal 
elements  in  democracy. 

The  complexities  of  modern  life  obviously  forbid 
any  return  to  a  more  simple  democratic  order,  and 
for  this  reason  make  the  discovery  of  compensa- 
tions for  this  handicap  the  more  obviously  urgent. 
It  is  humanly  possible  and  also  obligatory,  that  we 
establish  a  system  of  education  to  antidote  the 


170    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

blighting  effects  of  machinery  and  re-organize  in- 
dustry itself  in  such  fashion  as  to  minimize  the 
possible  damage  from  it. 

Is  it  not  apparent  that  your  factory  is  a  com- 
munity concern?  One  further  consideration  makes 
it  still  more  apparent  and  also  tragic.  Modern 
industry  is  so  organized  that  it  produces  more  goods 
than  the  producers  are  able  to  buy.  It  must,  there- 
fore, seek  a  foreign  market  to  dispose  of  this  sur- 
plus product.  The  bitter  contest  for  these  markets 
among  the  nations  is  the  chief  cause  of  interna- 
tional misunderstanding.  Economic  war  leads  di- 
rectly to  national  war.  It  reaches  its  hand  into 
every  village  and  home  and  takes  from  them  the 
flower  of  its  young  manhood  to  shed  its  life  blood 
in  a  contest  for  the  possession  of  things.  When, 
therefore,  modern  industry,  as  it  is  now  organized 
in  Europe  and  America,  is  likely  to  rob  my  fireside 
of  what  is  more  dear  to  me  than  life  itself,  am  I 
not  vitally  interested  in  the  organization  of  indus- 
try? It  is  the  common  basic  concern  of  every  citizen 
in  the  nation,  and  should  be  the  leading  subject  for 
discussion  in  the  town-meeting  of  every  city  and 
village  and  country-side. 

Any  resentment  of  the  interest,  which  "We,  the 
people,"  take  in  your  factory,  any  attitude  which 
would  lead  you  to  say  or  even  think,  "The  public  be 
damned,"  is  insultingly  out  of  place.  It  would  be 
more  appropriate  if  "We,  the  people"  should  resent 
your  presence  in  the  community.  Please  do  not 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  171 

misunderstand.  "We,  the  people"  are  not  against 
your  factory;  we  are  for  it.  We  have  earned  the 
right  to  speak  plainly  to  you,  because  we  have  made 
you  possible.  We  have  already  underwritten  you. 
Your  dependence  on  the  community  may  be  clearly 
illustrated  by  so  simple  a  thing  as  the  use  of  money. 
Money  is  the  accepted  medium  of  exchange  for 
organized  business  in  the  modern  world.  The  old 
method  of  barter  is  impossible  in  towns  and  cities. 
When  money  ceases  to  have  a  recognized  value,  all 
business  is  seriously  crippled  and  may  become  utterly 
paralyzed  and  next  to  impossible.  This  is  what  has 
happened  in  Europe,  through  the  reckless  manu- 
facture of  paper  money,  which  has  little  or  no  value. 
We  are  now  seeing  in  Europe  an  actual  exhibit  of 
the  paper-money  scheme,  described  in  Goethe's 
"Faust,"  with  the  same  inevitable  results  which  are 
disastrous  anywhere  else,  except  in  an  imaginary 
drama.  H.  G.  Wells  has  recently  shocked  us  by  a 
description  of  conditions  in  Europe  resulting  from 
the  demoralization  of  money.  He  says: 

"Europe  without  trustworthy  money  is  as  para- 
lyzed as  a  brain  without  wholesome  blood.  She 
cannot  act,  she  cannot  move.  Employment  becomes 
impossible  and  production  dies  away.  The  towns 
move  steadily  towards  the  starvation  that  has  over- 
taken Petrograd  and  the  peasants  and  cultivators 
cease  to  grow  anything  except  to  satisfy  their  own 
needs.  To  go  to  market  with  produce,  except  to 
barter,  is  a  mockery.  The  schools  are  not  working, 


172    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  hospitals,  the  public  services;  the  teachers  and 
doctors  and  officials  cannot  live  upon  their  pay, 
they  starve  or  go  away. 

"We  have  weakened  the  link  of  cash  payments, 
which  has  hitherto  held  civilization  together,  to  the 
breaking  point.  As  the  link  breaks  the  machine 
stops.  The  modern  city  will  become  a  formless 
mob  of  unemployed  men  and  the  countryside  will 
become  a  wilderness  of  food-hoarding  peasants — 
and  since  the  urban  masses  will  have  no  food  and 
no  means  of  commanding  it,  we  may  expect  the 
most  violent  pertubations,  before  they  are  persuaded 
to  accept  their  fate  in  a  philosophical  spirit.  Revo- 
lutionary social  outbreaks  are  not  the  results  of 
plots;  they  are  symptoms  of  social  disease.  They 
are  not  causes  but  effects.  This  is  what  I  mean  when 
I  write  of  a  breakdown  of  civilization." 

Now,  validity  can  be  given  to  money  only  by 
the  community,  that  is,  the  nation.  Without  such 
validity  the  conduct  of  your  business  is  impossible. 
The  dependence  of  modern  industry  on  the  com- 
munity in  the  matter  of  money  is  likewise  true  in 
other  respects  just  as  essential  to  its  prosperity. 
The  community,  therefore,  has  earned  the  right  not 
only  to  request,  but  to  demand  that  industry  hold 
itself  responsible  for  the  community's  most  vital 
concern,  namely,  the  welfare  of  its  citizens. 

I  said  a  few  moments  ago,  that  the  big  event  of 
modern  times  is  the  fact  that  workmen  have  become 
citizens,  acquired  equality  before  the  law.  This 


WHOSE  BUSINESS  Is  THIS?  173 

is  the  cause  of  industrial  unrest.  It  is  not  a  question 
of  wages,  or  working  conditions  or  the  recognition 
of  the  union.  These  are  all  secondary  questions  and 
symptoms  of  an  underlying  cause.  The  real  cause 
is  far  more  fundamental.  It  is  the  workman's  de- 
mand for  a  new  status.  In  politics  he  has  acquired 
a  new  status.  He  has  ceased  to  act  on  the  basis  of 
faith  and  obedience,  and  occupies  the  position  where 
he  is  informed  and  consulted.  He  demands  the 
same  in  industry.  Progress  in  industry  is  one  hun- 
dred fifty  years  behind  progress  in  politics.  He 
demands  that  it  be  brought  up  to  date.  There  is 
now  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between  his  status  in 
economics  and  his  status  in  politics. 

There  are  two  laws  discrete 

Not  reconciled — 

Law  for  man  and  law  for  thing; 

The  last  builds  town  and  fleet, 

But  it  runs  wild, 

And  doth  the  man  unking. 

It  is  quite  unthinkable  that  the  man,  who  has  been 
crowned  king  over  himself  in  politics,  will  submit 
to  the  process  of  being  unkinged  in  industry.  It 
is  an  irrepressible  issue.  The  only  possible  way  to 
meet  this  issue  is  to  give  him  the  new  status  in  indus- 
try and  to  assist  him  to  make  himself  worthy  of  it. 


CHAPTER   VI 

CREATING  A   DISPUTE 

\T7HEN  I  say  that  the  industrial  problem  is  a 
community  concern,  I  use  words  accurately. 
I  do  not  refer  to  government,  federal,  state  or  local. 
I  refer  to  the  community,  that  is,  the  nation. 
Nothing  is  more  important  at  this  point  than  to  make 
a  clear  distinction  between  the  government  and  the 
nation.  Government,  however  important  it  is,  is 
only  a  piece  of  administrative  machinery;  the  nation 
is  the  people.  Government  is  simply  the  instrument 
of  the  will  of  society.  An  organized  community  of 
citizens  expressing  its  will  effectively  for  the  com- 
mon welfare  is  the  nation  itself.  A  nation  is  the 
will  to  be  one  people  and  exists  nowhere  except  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  It  is  the  American  theory 
that  the  people  should  not  follow  their  government, 
but  that  their  government  should  follow  them.  In 
the  United  States  the  people  do  not  take  their  hats 
off  to  their  president;  he  takes  his  hat  off  to  them. 
This  fact  is  impressive  and  significant. 

In  order  to  make  this  distinction  unmistakably 
clear,  I  quote  two  incisive  statements  by  two  writers 
with  world  reputations.  I  purposely  omit  their 
names,  in  order  that  our  attention  may  be  centered 

174 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  175 

on  the  merit  of  the  statements  themselves,  unbiased 
by  connecting  them  with  their  authors. 

The  author  of  the  first  passage  did  almost  as 
much  as  any  other  single  man  to  achieve  American 
independence.  His  statement  is  as  follows: 

"Some  writers  have  so  confounded  society  with 
government,  as  to  leave  little  or  no  distinction  be- 
tween them;  whereas  they  are  not  only  different,  but 
have  different  origins.  Society  is  produced  by  our 
wants,  and  government  by  our  wickedness;  the  for- 
mer promotes  our  happiness  positively  by  uniting 
our  affections,  the  latter  negatively  by  restraining 
our  vices.  The  one  encourages  intercourse,  the 
other  creates  distinctions.  The  first  is  a  patron,  the 
last  a  punisher. 

"Society  in  every  state  is  a  blessing,  but  govern- 
ment, even  in  its  best  state,  is  but  a  necessary  evil; 
in  its  worst  state  an  intolerable  one ;  for  when  we 
suffer,  or  are  exposed  to  the  same  miseries  by  the 
government,  which  we  might  expect  in  a  country 
without  government,  our  calamity  is  heightened  by 
reflecting  that  we  furnish  the  means  by  which  we 
suffer.  Government,  like  dress,  is  the  badge  of  lost 


innocence." 


The  author  of  the  second  passage  was  one  of 
the  best-loved  men  both  in  America  and  Europe. 
His  statement  is  as  follows : 

"You  see  my  kind  of  loyalty  was  loyalty  to  one's 
country,  not  to  its  institutions  or  its  office-holders. 
The  country  is  the  real  thing,  the  eternal  thing;  it 


176    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

is  the  thing  to  watch  over,  and  care  for,  and  be 
loyal  to;  institutions  are  extraneous,  they  are  its 
mere  clothing,  and  clothing  can  wear  out,  become 
ragged,  cease  to  be  comfortable,  cease  to  protect 
the  body  from  winter,  disease  and  death.  To  be 
loyal  to  rags,  to  shout  for  rags,  to  worship  rags,  to 
die  for  rags — that  is  a  loyalty  of  unreason,  it  is 
pure  animal;  it  belongs  to  monarchy,  was  invented 
by  monarchy;  let  monarchy  keep  it.  I  was  from 
Connecticut,  whose  constitution  declares  'that  all 
political  power  is  inherent  in  the  people,  and  all  free 
governments  are  founded  on  their  authority  and 
instituted  for  their  benefit;  and  that  they  have  at 
all  times  an  undeniable  and  indefeasible  right  to 
alter  their  form  of  government  in  such  a  manner 
as  they  may  think  expedient.' 

"Under  that  gospel,  the  citizen  who  thinks  he 
sees  the  commonwealth's  political  clothes  are  worn 
out,  and  yet  holds  his  peace  and  does  not  agitate 
for  a  new  suit,  is  disloyal;  he  is  a  traitor.  That 
he  may  be  the  only  one  who  thinks  he  sees  this 
decay,  does  not  excuse  him;  it  is  his  duty  to  agitate 
anyway,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  others  to  vote  him 
down,  if  they  do  not  see  the  matter  as  he  does." 

I  dwell  on  this  distinction  between  the  state  and 
the  nation,  because  there  is  now  in  some  quarters  a 
revival  of  the  ancient  and  futile  idea,  that  the  indus- 
trial problem  can  be  solved  by  governmental  action. 
Now,  I  am  not  one  of  those,  who  believes  that 
"government  touches  nothing  that  it  does  not  de- 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  177 

form,"  or  that  the  function  of  the  state  should  be 
limited  to  that  of  a  night  watchman  for  the  protec- 
tion of  property.  I  believe  that  government  is  a 
useful  and  necessary  piece  of  machinery  and  should 
be  utilized  as  far  as  it  is  available  for  use.  But  we 
must  be  guided  by  the  fact  in  the  case.  The  obvious 
fact  about  government  is  that  it  can  operate  only 
on  the  basis  of  the  lowest  common  denominator 
which  is  usually  quite  low.  It  can  do  only  what 
public  opinion  will  support.  While  we  should  strive 
to  raise  this  common  denominator  to  make  govern- 
ment more  useful,  yet  we  cannot  expect  it  to  go  far 
in  the  direction  of  creative  activity. 

Essentially  government  is  a  police  power  for  pur- 
poses of  protection  and  not  for  the  promotion  of 
vital  movements.  The  less  police  power  the  better. 
The  stronger  the  police  power,  the  weaker  the  na- 
tion. When  the  Russian  nation  under  the  czar  was 
weakest  in  justice  and  honor,  it  had  the  strongest 
police  power.  When  the  nation  is  wholesome  and 
strong  in  its  integrity,  it  has  less  and  less  need  for 
police  power.  For  any  positive  achievement  we 
must  go  behind  governments  and  deal  with  those 
forces  that  control  governments  and  create  law.  A 
law  never  creates  anything.  It  only  regulates  what 
is  already  created.  It  does  not  stimulate  men  to  do 
right;  it  but  deters  them  from  doing  wrong  and 
even  that  it  does  very  imperfectly. 

The  inherent  nature  of  government,  therefore, 
disqualifies  it  for  effective  use  in  dealing  with  a 


178     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

creative  activity,  such  as  is  involved  in  the  industrial 
problem.  The  method  it  uses  is  force.  In  a  human 
problem  like  this,  any  form  of  force  is  utterly  futile. 
Writs  of  injunction,  prison  sentences,  federal  troops, 
are  not  a  solution,  but  an  aggravation.  Industrial 
courts  as  a  means  of  solving  the  problem  are  not 
an  aid,  but  a  hindrance  to  progress.  Such  courts 
were  tried  as  long  ago  as  four  hundred  years,  with 
worse  than  negative  results.  In  New  Zealand 
twenty  years  ago  they  were  tried  and  failed  and 
have  now  been  abandoned.  For  the  past  two  years 
one  has  been  tried  in  the  state  of  Kansas  and  there 
have  occurred  more  strikes  than  during  any  similar 
period  in  the  history  of  the  state.  In  the  Pittsburgh 
district  there  occurred  228  strikes  during  the  first 
six  months  of  1921,  an  average  of  38  strikes  a 
month.  But  during  the  33  months  from  April, 
1916,  to  January  31,  1918,  there  occurred  364 
strikes,  an  average  of  11  strikes  a  month.  This  is 
to  say  that  after  the  industrial  court  was  set  up  there 
were  over  three  times  as  many  strikes  as  before. 

This  negative  result  is  only  what  might  naturally 
have  been  expected.  An  industrial  court  can  deal 
only  with  a  contest  over  a  detail  of  the  problem.  It 
does  not  deal  with  causes,  but  only  with  effects. 
Now,  the  only  possible  way  to  get  rid  of  any  trouble 
is  to  remove  the  cause  that  produced  it.  Recently 
an  official  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  presented 
an  issue  to  the  Federal  Labor  board  for  its  con- 
sideration. He  was  told  that  the  board  could  not 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  179 

legally  consider  it,  because  the  railroad  had  not 
created  a  dispute  on  the  issue  with  its  workmen. 
Thereupon  the  railroad  proceeded  deliberately  to 
create  a  dispute  with  its  men,  so  that  the  issue  could 
be  considered  by  the  labor  board. 

This  fact  exhibits  the  weakness  and  futility  of  an 
industrial  court  in  dealing  with  industrial  problems. 
It  explains  not  only  why  it  produces  negative  results, 
but  also  why  it  does  positive  damage  to  the  cause  it 
aims  to  serve.  A  court  is  a  scene  of  conflict  between 
contestants  engaged  in  a  civil  war.  The  court  by 
its  method  is  a  continuation  of  the  very  thing  we 
want  to  prevent.  It  stimulates  the  very  thing  we 
are  trying  to  curb.  It  carries  on  the  conflict,  con- 
test, trial  of  battle;  we  aim  to  remove  the  cause  of 
conflict  as  the  only  possible  means  of  stopping  it. 
You  can't  stop  one  conflict  by  starting  another.  The 
way  to  fight  fire  is  not  with  fire,  but  with  water. 
"The  closed  hand  gets  the  shut  fist,"  is  an  old  Irish 
proverb  and  like  most  proverbs  expresses  a  universal 
human  experience. 

The  method  of  compulsory  arbitration  through 
a  court  has  thus  far  been  a  demonstrated  failure. 
The  failure  of  the  Kansas  Industrial  court  is  due  to 
two  basic  facts.  First  on  the  part  of  workers,  they 
will  not  consent  to  work  under  a  threat  of  imprison- 
ment at  a  rate  of  wages  fixed  by  a  court.  They 
regard  labor  under  these  conditions  as  peonage,  and 
rightly  so.  Between  freeman's  citizenship  and  in- 
dustrial slavery  there  is  an  irreconcilable  conflict. 


180    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Second,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  court  there  is 
no  recognized  principle  of  justice  wjiich  such  a 
court  can  apply.  There  is  no  such  principle  because 
in  modern  industry  wages  are  determined  by  a  com- 
plex combination  of  factors  involving  managers, 
workmen  and  consumers,  and  therefore  can  be 
regulated  only  by  voluntary  and  continuous  adjust- 
ment. 

For  this  reason  Chief  Justice  Taft,  in  a  recently 
delivered  opinion,  refers  to  the  Kansas  court  as 
"a  board  miscalled  a  court."  It  is  in  fact  not  a 
court  but  a  commission.  To  call  it  a  court  only 
disguised  a  fact  which  ought  to  have  been  kept 
clear  and  distinct.  "I  do  not  want  to  be  critical 
of  a  state  or  of  the  effort  of  its  legislature  to  solve 
troublesome  problems  of  unrest,"  said  Ex-Senator 
Kenyon,  "but  personally  it  seems  to  me  the  Kansas 
Industrial  court  cannot  be  a  success  because  it  has 
no  underlying  code  of  rules  or  principles  which 
are  regulatory  or  mandatory  upon  the  court.  A 
labor  organization,  person,  or  corporation  coming 
under  its  jurisdiction  has  no  bill  of  rights  which  can 
be  invoked  before  the  court.  The  matter  depends 
entirely  upon  the  judge.  Further,  it  seems  to  me 
the  court  is  based  upon  a  violation  of  previous 
experience,  both  here  and  abroad,  arising  from  leg- 
islation prohibiting  strikes,  and  further,  it  aims  to 
solve  a  problem  in  human  adjustments  with  an 
arbitrary,  rigid  and  unrestricted  judicial  fiat." 

Everywhere  "federated  capital"  is  engaged  in  a 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  181 

civil  war  with  "federated  labor,"  to  the  serious  in- 
jury of  both  and  also  of  the  community.  By  re- 
jecting the  court  as  an  instrument,  I  do  not  mean 
that  the  community  shall  do  nothing  about  this  civil 
war;  I  mean  there  is  a  more  excellent  way  than  the 
method  of  the  industrial  court  and  the  use  of  force. 
The  court  uses  the  method  of  the  arena;  the  more 
excellent  way  is  the  policy  of  co-operation.  Ob- 
viously co-operation  is  effective  only  when  it  is  free. 
We  are  all  agreed  that  free  co-operation  is  what  we 
aim  to  produce  as  the  essential  condition  for  suc- 
cess in  the  conduct  of  industry.  Logic  and  experi- 
ence have  sufficiently  demonstrated  the  fact  beyond 
the  need  of  further  argument  that  free  co-operation 
never  can  be  secured  by  the  use  of  any  kind  of 
force.  In  an  equation  involving  human  nature, 
freedom  and  force  cancel  each  other.  The  differ- 
ence in  method  and  result  between  these  two  pol- 
icies is  obvious  and  radical.  The  method  of  the 
arena  is  a  demonstrated  failure.  The  policy  of 
free  co-operation  alone  holds  promise  of  industrial 
peace. 

By  the  more  excellent  way,  I  mean  an  informed 
and  organized  public  opinion  and  nothing  else. 
There  are  only  two  ways  to  govern  a  community; 
one  is  by  force,  the  other  by  public  opinion.  Of 
these  two,  public  opinion  is  not  only  the  right 
method,  but  also  the  more  effective.  It  alone  can 
create  a  mental  revolution  and  that  is  the  one  thing 
needed  to  transform  modern  industry.  But  it  will 


182    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

be  a  "reasonable"  revolution,  whose  achievement 
is  peace.  It  is  stronger  than  courts,  or  armies,  or 
prisons,  or  governments;  indeed  it  is  the  maker  of 
them  all.  It  and  it  alone  can  create  a  new  and 
better  industrial  order. 

How  can  it  be  operated?  Instead  of  establish- 
ing industrial  courts,  there  should  be  set  up  in 
every  city  and  village  and  country  side  an  instrument 
or  new  machine,  whose  accurate  and  descriptive 
title  would  be  "the  public  committee  on  intelligence 
and  good-will"  For  short  it  may  probably  be  called 
"the  public  committee."  It  is  so  called  in  one  city. 
In  another  city  it  is  called  "the  community  confer- 
ence board."  A  natural  short  title  would  be  "the 
community  labor  board,"  or  "the  community  in- 
dustrial board."  But  each  of  these  names  is  so 
handicapped  by  association  as  to  make  its  use  un- 
wise. The  community  labor  board  would  suggest 
to  some  that  it  was  composed  of  employees  alone, 
although  the  word  "labor"  ought  to  be  dignified 
in  meaning  and  broadened  in  scope  to  apply  to  all 
of  us.  The  community  industrial  board  would  sug- 
gest to  some  that  it  was  composed  of  employers 
alone,  although  the  word  "industrial"  ought  to  in- 
clude all  engaged  in  industry.  It  is  necessary  to 
use  an  unspoiled  word  in  this  connection,  into  which 
we  can  put  a  fresh  content  suggestive  of  the  new 
function  the  board  is  designed  to  perform.  We, 
therefore,  suggest  and  recommend  as  the  best  name, 
"the  community  engineering  board."  The  word 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  183 

"engineering"  identifies  the  board  with  no  class  and 
suggests  the  essential  nature  of  its  task.  Its  busi- 
ness is  not  to  conduct  any  operation  or  propaganda, 
but  to  plan,  suggest  and  engineer  the  process  of 
community  building. 

The  longer  title  above  suggested  is  used  to  de- 
scribe its  purpose  and  function.  Every  word  in  it 
is  significant.  The  word  "public"  means  that  the 
committee  represents  the  public  alone,  not  any  or- 
ganization, or  class  of  citizens.  It  is  not  made  up 
of  representatives  of  "capital"  and  "labor"  and 
the  "public."  That  is  a  soviet  form  of  organiza- 
tion and  hurtful  in  operation.  Moreover  it  is  false 
to  the  facts.  The  public  is  not  "the  party  of  the 
third  part,"  it  is  "the  committee  of  the  whole," 
which  includes  capitalists  and  workmen  also.  For 
them  to  regard  themselves  as  set  off  apart  from  the 
public  as  its  enemies  or  exploiters,  is  chiefly  what 
makes  the  labor  problem.  The  word  "public" 
means  that  the  committee  is  unofficial,  but  repre- 
sentative. Only  three  members  on  it  should  be 
appointed  because  of  the  positions  they  occupy;  one 
is  the  mayor;  one  is  the  superintendent  of  public 
instruction  and  one  is  the  judge  of  a  court.  These 
three  officers  are  the  servants  of  all  the  people,  and 
they  represent  the  three  outstanding  pieces  of  public 
machinery  nearest  to  the  people,  the  town  govern- 
ment, the  public  school  and  the  courts.  All  other 
members  of  the  committee  should  be  representatives 
of  all  classes  and  shades  of  opinion,  but  selected  as 


184    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

individuals,  not  officially  by  any  club,  labor  union, 
chamber  of  commerce  or  by  any  special  govern- 
mental agency,  court  or  council. 

The  significance  of  the  word  "public"  in  the  con- 
struction of  this  committee  is  the  essential  fact  to 
keep  clearly  in  the  foreground,  because  it  is  the 
distinguishing  feature  of  a  new  method  of  proce- 
dure. Hitherto  all  commissions  appointed  to  handle 
industrial  disputes  have  been  composed  of  three 
groups,  "capital,"  "labor,"  and  "the  public."  This 
is  why  their  success  glares  by  its  absence.  How 
could  you  expect  successful  results  from  a  committee 
composed  of  three  groups,  two  of  which  are  organ- 
ized and  at  war  with  each  other?  Our  ground  of 
hope  that  a  committee,  organized  on  the  new  plan 
here  suggested,  will  succeed,  is  the  obvious  fact 
that  there  is  no  reason  why  two  contending  groups 
should  submit  to  each  other,  but  every  reason  to 
expect  that  they  will  be  willing  to  submit  to  a  prin- 
ciple superior  to  them  both.  This  superior  principle 
is  the  public  welfare  in  which  each  of  the  contend- 
ing factions  also  has  a  share. 

Because  an  engineering  board  does  not  take  sides 
with  either  faction,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  its 
aim  is  to  be  neutral,  that  it  inflicts  on  itself  the 
weakness  of  a  negative  attitude  on  questions  involv- 
ing justice.  It  emphatically  takes  sides,  not  with 
any  group,  but  with  the  public  interest.  In  its 
behalf  it  fights  without  truce.  It  wages  unrelenting 
war  against  enemies  of  the  common  good.  It  is 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  185 

not  for  any  party,  but  it  is  for  a  principle.  It  is 
because  its  policy  is  dictated  by  principle,  that  it  is 
in  no  sense  partisan. 

The  word  "intelligence"  suggests  the  first  essen- 
tial function  of  such  a  community  engineering 
board.  Its  a  fact-finding  agency.  It  is  to  equip 
itself  with  information  about  modern  industry,  its 
history,  its  methods,  its  organization,  capital,  wages, 
working  conditions,  treatment  of  workmen,  sug- 
gested improvements,  its  relation  to  national  wel- 
fare. The  systematic  effort  to  secure  knowledge  of 
these  facts  and  to  make  it  available  for  public  use 
is  a  needed  public  service  of  highest  value  and  in- 
dispensable to  the  safety  of  any  community.  Every 
citizen  is  under  moral  obligation  not  to  be  ignorant 
of  facts  as  vital  as  these  are.  To  ascertain  the 
facts  and  submit  them  impartially  to  employers, 
employees  and  the  public,  would  go  far  to  solve 
the  labor  troubles  before  they  happen,  because  they 
are  due  to  a  misunderstanding  more  than  to  any 
other  single  cause.  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free,"  said  the  greatest 
of  all  democrats,  because  He  realized  that  the  only 
road  to  freedom  is  knowledge  of  fact.  The  at- 
tempt of  such  a  board  to  make  itself  intelligent  on 
this  subject  would  be  a  shocking  revelation  of  the 
amount  of  ignorance  now  existing  with  reference  to 
it.  Even  a  short  experience  on  the  board  would 
lead  an  average  citizen  to  agree  with  Mark  Twain 
when  he  said:  "The  older  I  grow  the  more  I  am 


186    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

astounded  to  discover  how  much  ignorance  one  can 
contain  without  bursting  one's  clothes." 

The  other  word  "good-will,"  suggests  the  other 
chief  function  of  a  community  engineering  board. 
The  first  function  is  to  ascertain  facts;  this  is  its 
major  work.  The  second  function  is  to  create  good- 
will; this  is  its  method  of  conducting  the  work  and 
utilizing  the  facts.  The  importance  of  promoting 
free  trade  in  friendship  cannot  be  over-stated.  To 
carry  on  its  work  without  this  spirit  is  like  drawing 
a  harrow  over  frozen  ground.  The  reason  for  its 
importance  is  the  fact  that  men  are  more  influenced 
through  their  feelings  than  through  their  intellects. 
This  is  why  poets  have  been  called  "the  unacknowl- 
edged legislators  of  the  world."  They  think  with 
their  hearts.  So  do  all  men.  Unless  the  method 
of  the  poet  is  used,  neither  wars,  industries  nor  any 
other  enterprises  requiring  concerted  action,  can  be, 
or  in  fact  ever  are,  carried  on  successfully. 

When  it  was  proposed  in  the  British  Parliament 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  to  send  to  the  col- 
onies new  supplies  of  guns  and  ammunition,  William 
Pitt  arose  and  said:  "We  must  reckon  not  so  much 
on  the  amount  and  quality  of  our  guns  as  on  the 
sentiment  for  liberty  in  the  hearts  of  the  American 
Soldiers."  Likewise  with  the  industrial  war.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  mechanics,  but  of  morals.  It 
will  be  determined  by  the  sentiment  in  the  hearts  of 
those  involved  in  the  contest. 

The  use  of  this  method  of  a  community  engineer- 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  187 

ing  board  is  so  essential  to  its  successful  operation, 
that  1  emphasize  it  by  quoting  a  clear  and  forceful 
statement  of  its  importance  by  Abraham  Lincoln, 
who  was  expert  in  his  knowledge  of  human  nature. 
He  said: 

"If  you  would  win  a  man  to  your  cause,  first 
convince  him  that  you  are  his  true  friend.  Therein 
is  a  drop  of  honey  that  catches  his  heart,  which,  say 
what  he  will,  is  the  greatest  highroad  to  his  reason, 
and  which  when  once  gained,  you  will  find  but  little 
trouble  in  convincing  his  judgment  of  the  justice  of 
your  cause,  if,  indeed  that  cause  be  really  a  just  one. 
On  the  contrary,  assume  to  dictate  to  his  judgment, 
or  to  command  his  action,  or  to  mark  him  as  one 
to  be  shunned  or  despised,  and  he  will  retreat  within 
himself,  close  all  the  avenues  to  his  head  and  heart; 
and  though  your  cause  be  naked  truth  itself,  trans- 
formed to  the  heaviest  lance,  harder  than  steel  and 
sharper  than  steel  can  be  made,  and  though  you 
throw  it  with  more  than  herculean  force  and  pre- 
cision, you  shall  be  no  more  able  to  pierce  him  than 
to  penetrate  the  hard  shell  of  a  tortoise  with  a  rye 
straw.  Such  is  man  and  so  must  he  be  understood 
by  those  who  would  lead  him,  even  to  his  own 
interests." 

A  community  engineering  board  should  be  a 
standing  committee,  permanently  at  work.  Its  duty 
would  be  to  settle  strikes  as  occasion  required  or  to 
arbitrate  difficulties,  when  requested  to  do  so.  But 
such  a  task  is  only  incidental  to  its  main  work.  Its 


188     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

real  work  is  far  more  fundamental  in  character. 
Arbitration  implies  a  conflict,  and  a  strike  is  an 
actual  civil  war.  The  board's  job  is  to  remove  the 
cause  of  conflict,  so  that  there  will  be  no  need  to 
arbitrate;  to  do  the  work  not  of  cure  but  of  pre- 
vention; to  stimulate  and  assist  in  the  reorganization 
of  industry  on  a  new  basis,  which  will  eliminate  the 
losses  due  to  constant  conflict. 

This  larger  conception  of  its  task  at  once  makes 
clear  the  necessity  for  the  board  to  consider  such 
questions  as  these :  The  tragedy  and  suffering  due 
to  the  uncertainty  of  employment;  the  release  of 
credit  facilities  to  make  possible  the  inauguration 
of  useful  industrial  enterprises;  the  establishment  of 
certain  types  of  work  for  public  improvement  in 
order  to  utilize  the  productive  energies  of  men  now 
lost  to  the  community  during  periods  of  unemploy- 
ment. 

The  board's  investigation  work  and  advisory  ser- 
vice will  require  years  of  quiet  and  patient  labor, 
but  it  will  be  fascinating  labor.  While  this  un- 
finished task  is  being  carried  on,  and  as  a  continuous 
stimulation  to  it,  there  are  two  activities  which  it 
can  immediately  undertake  to  put  into  operation  its 
two  guiding  principles:  organized  intelligence  and 
organized  good-will.  The  aim  of  these  two  activ- 
ities is  to  establish  points  of  contact  between  mem- 
bers of  the  employing  class  and  the  working  class. 
Points  of  social  contact  and  points  of  mental  con- 
tact. 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  189 

First,  good-will.  To  promote  this  it  is  suggested 
that  the  community  engineering  board  arrange  oc- 
casionally a  social  evening.  The  most  effective  plan 
for  our  purpose  would  be  an  inexpensive  banquet, 
where  people  of  all  classes  sat  around  the  same 
table  for  their  evening  meal,  broke  bread  together, 
"tasted  each  other's  salt,"  which,  according  to  the 
Eastern  custom,  cements  their  friendship.  It  is  a 
real  communion  supper,  a  community  dinner  party. 
At  it  there  should  always  be  good  music,  which  is 
the  common  denominator  of  community  activity; 
the  universal  language.  An  invitation  issued  by  the 
public  committee,  on  which  are  men  and  women  of 
all  classes,  would  receive  a  favorable  response  from 
employers,  employees  and  the  public.  It  is  the  only 
invitation  which  would  receive  such  a  response. 

The  function  of  this  dinner  party  is  to  promote 
free  trade  in  friendship.  It  is  obviously  far  more 
than  a  pleasant  social  event.  It  strikes  at  the  root  of 
some  of  the  chief  causes  of  industrial  trouble.  For 
as  George  Frederic  Watts  said:  "The  hunger  for 
brotherhood  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  unrest  of  the 
civilized  world."  The  constructive  value  of  friend- 
ship for  social  and  industrial  politics  ought  to  be 
obvious,  but  it  is  constantly  side-tracked  by  the 
complex  and  futile  methods  of  legal  and  military 
procedure.  Centuries  ago  it  was  obvious  to  Aris- 
totle, who  said :  "When  men  are  friends  there  is  no 
need  of  justice,  but  when  they  are  just,  they  still 
need  friendship." 


190    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Second,  intelligence.  To  promote  this  it  is  sug- 
gested that  the  community  engineering  board  ar- 
range for  a  public  consideration  of  all  phases  of 
the  industrial  problem  by  means  of  addresses,  de- 
bates and  general  discussion.  The  best  time  and 
place  for  it  is  immediately  after  the  dinner  party 
as  an  after-dinner  program.  The  friendly  spirit 
of  the  dinner  creates  a  helpful  atmosphere  in  which 
to  consider  questions  over  which  there  is,  or  may 
be,  a  sharp  difference  of  opinion.  It  ought  to  be 
clearly  understood  that  there  is  no  intention  of 
using  this  occasion  for  inducing  men  to  surrender 
their  convictions,  or  of  "putting  something  over" 
on  anybody.  Otherwise  the  project  will  be  still- 
born. No  debatable  or  unsettled  element  of  the 
labor  problem,  should  be  presented  without  pre- 
senting both  sides  of  it.  Sometimes  an  arranged 
debate  would  not  only  be  an  agreeable  departure 
from  a  series  of  addresses,  but  also  far  more  effec- 
tive and  illuminating.  The  aim  is  to  secure  a  better 
understanding  among  men,  who  are  now  antagon- 
ists. This  strikes  at  another  basic  cause  of  indus- 
trial conflict.  Dallas  Lore  Sharp  was  not  far  from 
the  truth  when  he  said:  "It  is  not  work  that  divides 
masses  from  classes  and  sets  worker  against  em- 
ployer, nor  is  it  money;  it  is  lack  of  understanding." 
How  is  it  possible  to  eliminate  lack  of  understand- 
ing, unless  men  are  granted  the  right  to  express 
their  convictions  without  reservation,  and  unless 
also  they  perform  the  duty  of  listening  with  respect 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  191 

to  opinions  differing  from  their  own?  The  spirit, 
dominating  the  public  meetings  of  the  community 
engineering  board,  should  be  the  spirit  which  in- 
spired Voltaire  to  say:  "I  wholly  disagree  with 
what  you  say  and  will  contend  to  the  death  for 
your  right  to  say  it."  The  time  for  these  frank 
discussions  is  before  a  strike  begins,  not  after  the 
feelings  have  been  charged  with  anger  and  the  mind 
beclouded  with  prejudice.  The  community  engi- 
neering board  is  a  piece  of  social  machinery  through 
which  the  pooled  intelligence  of  a  community  may 
be  made  available  in  the  effort  to  solve  its  industrial 
problem. 

These  then  are  the  chief  activities  of  the  com- 
munity engineering  board.  In  order  to  assist  in 
the  reconstruction  of  modern  industry  and  remove 
the  causes  of  industrial  civil  war,  its  function  is 
to  conduct  a  continuous  impartial  investigation,  an 
occasional  community  dinner  party  and  a  public 
discussion  of  the  industrial  problem.  I  have  pur- 
posely omitted  any  description  of  details  of  pro- 
cedure, because  the  organization  of  the  board  and 
its  methods  of  work  will  necessarily  vary  greatly 
according  to  the  nature  and  size  of  the  locality. 
The  American  people  have  ingenuity  and  are  ac- 
customed to  use  their  own  initiative.  They  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  adapting  this  new  community 
machine  to  their  own  needs. 

Its  purpose  and  work,  as  here  stated,  clearly  in- 
dicate that  it  is  designed  to  meet  an  unmet  and 


192    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

urgent  need  and  to  render  a  service  of  incalculable 
value  to  the  common  welfare.  To  stimulate  an 
open  mind  and  friendly  spirit  is  constructive  work 
of  indispensable  importance,  if  we  are  to  hope  for 
any  industrial  peace.  With  an  open  mind  and 
friendly  spirit  anything  can  be  accomplished;  with- 
out them,  nothing  can.  In  the  old  days  of  the 
home  industries,  master  and  men  were  by  their 
work  kept  in  daily  human  contact  on  the  basis  of 
social  equality.  Industry  has  grown  more  and  more 
mechanical;  less  and  less  human.  It  is  handicapped 
by  bigness.  The  lack  of  human  touch  must  be  sup- 
plied by  conscious  effort.  Social  and  mental  contact 
can  now  be  secured  by  a  plan  like  the  community 
dinner  party  here  suggested.  The  new  method, 
while  handicapped  by  size,  has  some  advantages 
over  the  old  one.  In  the  old  days  men  met  chiefly 
as  master  and  workman.  On  the  new  plan  they 
will  meet  not  as  employer  and  employee,  but  as 
fellow  citizens  on  the  basis  of  equality  before  the 
law,  equality  of  manhood. 

The  bigness  of  modern  industrial  operations  re- 
quires new  methods,  but  removes  neither  the  need 
nor  the  possibility  of  securing  intelligent  sympathy. 
Inasmuch  as  man  is  a  time-binder,  thinks  in  terms 
of  time,  lives  in  ideas,  he  easily  can  leap  over  the 
barriers  of  space,  and  size,  and  numbers.  It  is 
as  possible  for  five  hundred  men  to  be  animated 
by  the  same  idea  in  a  common  enterprise  as  for 
fifty.  Mental  contact  is  not  conditioned  on  space 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  193 

and  size.    It  is  primarily  a  spiritual,  not  a  physical, 
process. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  considered  the  func- 
tion of  community  engineering  boards  only  as  they 
are  related  to  the  industrial  problem.  But  they 
will  not  go  far  in  the  process  of  handling  this 
problem  before  they  discover  that  very  little  real 
progress  is  possible  unless  they  handle  the  com- 
munity problem  as  well.  The  two  problems  are  so 
organically  related  that  neither  can  be  handled  ef- 
fectively by  itself  alone.  If  you  start  with  com- 
munity life  you  are  sure  to  run  into  industry;  if 
you  start  with  industry  you  are  sure  to  run  into 
community  life.  They  are  no  longer  two  worlds, 
but  one  and  the  same  world. 

We  began  with  the  industrial  half  of  the  problem, 
because  industry  is  the  dominant  social,  political 
and  spiritual  problem  of  today.  During  the  past 
thirty  years  we  have  become  an  industrialized  so- 
ciety. This  radically  alters  the  equation.  Whether 
for  better  or  worse  we  need  not  say,  but  it's  differ- 
ent. Henceforth  the  community  movement  has  no 
choice;  it  must  deal  with  industry. 

It  is  not  only  a  community  concern,  but  our  chief 
concern.  For  an  industrial  community  to  consider 
community  problems  apart  from  industry  is  like 
playing  "Hamlet"  without  Hamlet.  Not  only  an 
industry's  contacts  with  the  community  and  the 
human  factors  inside  the  industry  are  community 


194    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

problems,  but  the  industry  itself  is  a  community 
problem. 

If  industry  has  affected  the  community  pro- 
foundly, the  community  will  likewise  affect  industry. 
Indeed,  the  community  principle  holds  the  key,  we 
believe,  to  the  solution  of  industry's  problem,  in  so 
far  as  there  is  any  solution.  We  feel  under  obli- 
gation to  render  this  service  to  industry. 

The  function,  therefore,  of  community  engineer- 
ing boards  is  to  handle  both  the  industrial  and 
the  community  problems  and  to  do  both  at  the  same 
time,  because  they  are  two  halves  of  one  whole, 
like  the  two  sides  of  the  same  shield.  The  com- 
munity problem  offers  these  boards  a  fascinating 
opportunity  to  render  a  constructive  service  to  the 
nation  at  the  point  of  its  greatest  need. 

As  pathfinders,  the  New  England  Pilgrims  con- 
tributed two  institutions  to  America — the  public 
school  and  the  town  meeting. 

The  first  comers  from  Europe  were  people  of 
considerable  education.  They  early  established  a 
public  school  system  in  Massachusetts.  For  a  time 
all  went  well.  But  by  the  end  of  the  first  third 
of  the  nineteenth  century  public  education  had  fallen 
into  decay.  The  democratic  ideals  of  its  founders 
had  vanished  and  what  there  was  of  it  was  of  a  low 
order. 

Then  came  Horace  Mann,  the  first  man  who 
really  understood  the  educational  needs  of  the  na- 
tion. He  started  a  revival  in  public  education, 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  195 

restored  it  to  a  democratic  basis,  modified  it  to 
meet  new  conditions,  and  had  the  practical  capacity 
to  make  his  reforms  effective.  If  the  public  school 
is  now  our  biggest  national  asset  and  achievement, 
it  is  due  to  Horace  Mann,  who  is  justly  called  the 
father  of  American  education. 

The  town  meeting  likewise  fell  into  decay.  Al- 
though one  of  the  oldest  traditions  of  the  English 
race  and  the  basis  of  our  whole  system,  it  has  long 
been  crumbling  and  has  not  been  restored.  What 
Horace  Mann  did  for  the  public  school  is  what  now 
needs  to  be  done  for  the  town  meeting  idea.  This 
is  the  big  item  in  the  nation's  unfinished  business, 
for  an  intelligent  and  organized  public  opinion  is  the 
one  effective  guarantee  of  progress  in  any  line  of 
social  endeavor. 

A  community  engineering  board,  in  directing  the 
construction  of  local  self-governing  organizations 
of  citizens,  aims  to  carry  on  the  purpose  for  which 
the  United  States  was  organized  and  to  create  the 
means  by  which  society  may  express  its  will  effec- 
tively for  the  common  welfare. 

Its  program  of  action  consists  in  the  application 
of  one  clear,  simple,  basic  principle  to  various  needs, 
which  are  so  organically  related  that  they  must  be 
considered  together. 

Its  method  of  procedure  is  free  and  untrammeled 
discussion.  If  this  method  fails  us,  what  hope  is 
there  for  democracy?  "If  water  chokes,  what  can 
one  drink  to  stop  choking?" 


196    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Its  chief  tasks  are:  To  organize  community 
centers  on  the  basis  of  citizenship;  to  keep  them 
organized  by  helping  to  discover  and  devise  prac- 
tical projects;  to  furnish  youth,  resident  aliens,  and 
newly-enfranchised  women  the  opportunity  to  equip 
themselves  for  the  duties  and  rights  of  citizenship; 
to  establish  adult  schools  for  working  people;  to 
co-ordinate  social  agencies  and  eliminate  waste  of 
duplication;  to  relate  the  services  of  municipal  and. 
volunteer  agencies  effectively  to  the  people  for 
whom  they  are  designed;  to  settle  strikes  whenever 
this  service  is  required,  but  still  better,  to  remove 
the  causes  of  the  industrial  civil  war;  to  apply  the 
community  principle  in  any  other  ways  which  may 
promote  concerted  action  for  the  common  welfare. 

This  task  is  big,  of  course.  That's  why  it's  fas- 
cinating; it  is  both  a  science  and  an  art.  Engi- 
neering boards  must  discover  a  body  of  agreed 
community  principles,  the  laws  of  social  life.  They 
must  acquire  facts.  They  are  fact-finding  commit- 
tees, but  they  are  very  much  more  than  this.  The 
art  of  their  task  is  their  chief  concern. 

They  must  devise  ways  of  making  their  facts 
useful  and  the  art  of  putting  their  principles  into 
practice.  Art  is  the  process  of  translating  an  ideal 
into  fact.  If  you  succeed,  then  you  have  romance, 
for  romance  is  a  dream  come  true.  It  is  not  mere 
knowledge  we  seek,  but  intelligence;  not  learning, 
but  wisdom.  This  is  why  average  men  and  women 
are  fitted  to  serve  on  these  boards. 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  197 

Experts  and  specialists  are  not  needed.  Indeed 
the  trouble  they  have  caused  is  what  we  seek  to 
correct.  Everybody's  a  specialist.  uThe  miller 
thinks  that  the  wheat  grows  only  in  order  to  keep 
his  mill  going.'1  So  all  men  and  agencies  are  pris- 
oners to  their  special  work  and  point  of  view.  Our 
aim  is  to  be  "generalists,"  to  study  the  community 
as  a  whole  and  to  co-ordinate  its  activities  for  the 
common  good. 

The  function  of  engineering  boards  is  to  pioneer 
in  the  attempt  to  usher  in  the  age  of  good  sense  in 
the  conduct  of  community  affairs,  including  industry. 
They  can  transform  a  community's  problem  into  an 
opportunity.  The  problem  they  are  designed  to 
meet  is  not  only  urgent,  but  the  most  urgent  of  our 
public  needs.  "The  public,"  said  Hegel,  "is  that 
part  of  the  state  which  does  not  know  what  it 
wants."  To  assist  it  to  discover  what  it  ought  to 
want  and  how  to  give  its  desires  effective  expres- 
sion for  the  common  good,  that  is  America's  big 
job  in  every  local  community. 

Lincoln  exhibited  the  wisdom  of  a  far-sighted 
statesman,  and  the  fine  balance  between  a  clear 
brain  and  tender  heart  best  of  all  in  his  policy  to 
make  the  salvation  of  the  Union  his  dominant  aim, 
more  important  than  the  destruction  of  any  partic- 
ular evil.  The  salvation  of  the  Union,  he  believed, 
made  possible  the  continuous  conquest  of  many  par- 
ticular evils. 

If  we  are  guided  by  Lincoln's  judgment,  would 


198    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

we  not  conclude  that  likewise  in  every  local  com- 
munity the  task  of  first  importance  is  to  restore 
and  preserve  the  union  of  citizens  in  an  understand- 
ing of  their  common  concerns  and  in  concerted  ac- 
tion on  their  behalf?  To  achieve  this  purpose,  for 
which  as  yet  no  effective  instrument  anywhere  ex- 
ists, the  community  engineering  board  is  designed. 
It  is  a  bridge-builder,  to  reconstruct  the  broken- 
down  bridges  of  communication  and  understanding 
among  conflicting  groups  of  citizens,  organized  to 
contend  for  their  own  interests.  For  success  in  a 
task  as  difficult  as  this  one  obviously  is,  it  is  essen- 
tial first  to  create  community  morale.  For  this 
reason  we  have  stressed  the  creative  power  of  good- 
will as  an  integrating  influence.  In  social  engi- 
neering it  is  a  factor  of  first  importance.  "Morale," 
said  Napoleon,  "is  to  force  as  three  is  to  one." 

If  I  were  asked  to  select  one  word  to  describe 
the  great  purpose  and  work  of  the  community  engi- 
neering board,  I  would  select  the  word  chosen  by 
David  Grayson  to  describe  himself.  When  he  sat 
at  dinner  with  a  factory  owner,  Mr.  Vedder,  and 
was  helping  him  to  settle  a  strike  then  in  operation, 
Mr.  Vedder  asked  him  what  kind  of  social  phil- 
osopher he  called  himself.  "I  do  not  call  myself 
by  any  name,"  said  Grayson,  "but  if  I  chose  a  name, 
do  you  know  the  name  I  would  like  to  have  applied 
to  me?"  "I  cannot  imagine,"  was  the  answer. 
"Well,  I  would  like  to  be  called  'an  introducer.1 
My  friend,  Mr.  Blacksmith,  let  me  introduce  you 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  199 

to  my  friend,  Mr.  Plutocrat.  I  could  almost  swear 
that  you  are  brothers,  so  near  alike  you  are.  You 
will  find  each  other  wonderfully  interesting,  once 
you  get  over  the  awkwardness  of  the  introduction." 
"It  is  a  good  name,"  said  Mr.  Vedder,  laughing. 
"It's  a  wonderful  name,"  said  Grayson,  "and  it's 
about  the  biggest  and  finest  work  in  the  world — to 
know  human  beings  just  as  they  are  and  to  make 
them  acquainted  with  one  another  just  as  they  are. 
Why,  it's  the  foundation  of  all  the  democracy  there 
is  or  ever  will  be.  Sometimes  I  think  that  friend- 
liness is  the  only  achievement  of  life  worth  while, 
and  unfriendliness  the  only  tragedy." 

If  a  community  engineering  board  is  effectively 
to  do  constructive  work  of  permanent  value,  there  is 
one  principle  it  must  undeviatingly  practice.  It  must 
be  impartial.  It  is  not  the  friend  of  the  rich  man; 
nor  the  friend  of  the  poor  man;  just  the  friend  of 
man.  Because  it  takes  the  side  only  of  the  im- 
partial public,  its  clearly  understood  purpose  must 
be: 

To  ease  the  strong  of  their  burden, 
To  help  the  weak  in  their  need. 

The  board  must  not  only  be  impartial,  but  it  must 
secure  the  recognition  of  its  impartiality.  This  may 
not  be  easy.  It  will  take  time  and  patience.  There 
is  so  much  suspicion  and  misunderstanding  on  the 
part  of  both  owners  and  workmen,  that  it  is  difficult 
for  either  of  them  to  believe,  that  any  body  of  men 


200    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

can  be  impartial.  They  will  have  to  be  convinced 
through  a  process  of  education. 

Inasmuch  as  the  board  relies  for  the  enforcement 
of  its  recommendations  not  on  any  form  of  phys- 
ical or  legal  force,  but  only  on  persuasion,  educa- 
tion and  the  use  of  public  opinion,  therefore,  its 
only  capital  in  stock  is  its  integrity,  its  moral  in- 
fluence. The  weight  of  its  influence  will  be  deter- 
mined by  the  knowledge  of  its  impartiality.  In  the 
process  of  convincing  owners  and  workmen  and  the 
public  to  believe  that  it  is  impartial,  it  is  recom- 
mended that  the  board,  as  soon  as  it  is  formed, 
issue  a  declaration  of  principles,  by  which  it  means 
to  be  guided  in  its  work.  Its  influence  for  good 
will  increase  as  the  discovery  is  made,  that  it  is 
sincere  in  its  attempt  to  practice  them. 

As  a  suggestion  I  here  reproduce,  with  a  few 
verbal  changes,  a  declaration  of  principles,  which  I 
prepared  for  a  community  engineering  board  in  an 
eastern  city  and  which  it  adopted.  Such  boards 
should  prepare  their  own  declarations,  but  they  may 
feel  free  to  make  any  use  they  please  of  the  one 
here  suggested,  in  whole  or  in  part.  It  is  as  follows : 

THE    COMMUNITY   ENGINEERING 
BOARD 

Declaration  of  Principles 

This  board  is  unofficial,  but  representative;  pub- 
lic, but  free.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  impartial  com- 
munity. Jn  public  opinion  alone  is  the  sanction  of 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  201 

its  authority  and  the  enforcement  of  its  decisions. 
Its  purpose  is  to  stimulate  the  untrammelled  practice 
of  citizenship;  to  help  in  creating  a  New  Industrial 
America ;  to  ascertain  the  facts  about  modern  indus- 
try; to  assist  in  the  reorganization  of  industry  on 
the  basis  of  the  manhood  principle;  to  make  clear 
the  idea  that  labor  is  not  a  commodity;  to  advocate 
the  practice  of  the  community  principle  as  the  only 
solution  of  the  industrial  problem.  The  Board's 
work  is  wholly  constructive;  it  doesn't  knock,  it 
builds.  The  program  it  seeks  to  make  effective  is: 

1.  To  terminte  the  civil  war  between  capitalists 

and  laborers,  making  them  joint  allies  in  a 
common  task. 

2.  To  promote  the  spirit  of  good-will  as  a  com- 
munity asset,  by  removing  the  cause  of  ill- 
will.   ' 

3.  To  put  the  manufacture  of  men  above  the 
manufacture  of  things,  making  men  and  let- 
ting the  men  make  the  things. 

4.  To  make  the  community  interest  dominant 

over  the  interest  of  any  private  group. 

5.  To  replace  production  for  profit  by  produc- 

tion for  use,  and  thus  stimulate  production. 

6.  To  make  work  cease   to  be  drudgery  and 

become  a  means  of  self-expression. 


202    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

7.  To  apply  democracy  to  industry,  giving  all 

workers  a  guiding  part  in  their  work. 

8.  To  apply  justice  to  profits,  rewarding  work 

on  its  merits — no  more,  no  less. 

9.  To  apply  art  to  industry,  restoring  to  labor 

the  sense  of  joy  and  dignity. 

10.  To  provide  more  leisure  for  personal  growth, 
relieving  the  monotony  of  machine  work  and 
the  blight  of  unemployment. 

11.  To  transform  "hands"  into  "men,"  so  that 

the  workers  may  be  whole  men  when  they 
work,  and  may  not  cease  to  be  citizens. 

12.  To  make  it  clear  that  a  community's  social 

welfare,  its  property  values,  its  type  of  citi- 
zens, and  its  industrial  conditions  are  or- 
ganically interdependent. 

13.  To  stimulate  owners  and  workmen,   to  be- 

lieve that  they  have  like  interests,  to  recog- 
nize them  as  common  interests,  and  to  con- 
clude that  industrial  conflicts  are,  therefore, 
civil  wars. 

14.  To  persuade  contending  parties  in  civil  indus- 

trial wars  to  give  first  place  not  to  their 
rights  but  their  duties,  and  to  treat  disputes 
in  the  light  of  their  obligation  to  public  wel- 
fare, dispensing  with  force  and  substituting 
intelligence  and  good-will. 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  203 

The  foregoing  declaration  aims  to  state  basic  and 
recognized  ethical  ideals,  to  make  clear  the  purpose 
of  community  engineering  boards.  As  they  proceed 
to  the  application  of  these  standards  they  will,  of 
course,  find  it  necessary  to  formulate  codes  of  prin- 
ciples more  in  particular.  Such  particular  principles 
should  be  slowly  and  progressively  developed  to 
meet  special  needs  as  they  arise.  They  should  not 
be  imposed  from  the  top  by  legislation,  but  grow 
out  of  conditions  they  are  designed  to  meet.  Judge 
Kenyon,  before  he  left  the  Senate,  clearly  indicated 
the  effective  process  to  follow,  when  he  said, 
"Courts  of  compulsory  arbitration  have  never  been 
a  success.  Nations  that  have  tried  it  are  generally 
willing  to  acknowledge  that  the  system  is  a  failure. 
But  that  does  not  argue  against  boards  of  media- 
tion or  industrial  courts  based  upon  an  industrial 
code  to  investigate  and  propose  adjustments  and 
make  findings,  leaving  to  the  great  public  the  power 
to  enforce  them  by  public  opinion  and  that  is  in 
any  event  the  most  powerful  agency  for  law  en- 
forcement." 

This  statement  describes  a  community  engineer- 
ing board  as  here  recommended.  Public  opinion, 
on  which  alone  such  a  board  relies,  is  not  only  the 
best  agency  to  enforce  law,  but  it  is  also  the  agency 
which  creates  the  law.  The  common  law  is  the 
product  of  the  expectation  of  the  community.  It 
grew  out  of  decisions  made  by  a  judge  in  response 
to  what  the  people  expected  him  to  make  in  accord- 


204    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

ance  with  what  they  regarded  as  just.  What  we 
now  need  is  a  new  body  of  common  law  to  meet  the 
new  industrial  conditions.  The  community  engi- 
neering board,  as  here  described,  is  the  appropriate 
instrument  through  which  (the  new  common  law 
principles  can  be  evolved,  secure  recognition,  and 
be  put  into  operation. 

This  process  has  already  received  a  big  impetus 
through  the  action  taken  during  the  war  to  meet  an 
emergency.  In  order  to  secure  continuity  and  accel- 
eration in  the  production  of  war  supplies,  the  gov- 
ernment found  it  necessary  to  adopt  an  agreed  and 
uniform  policy  in  dealing  with  industrial  conditions. 
Accordingly  early  in  1918  there  was  convened  a 
labor  conference  composed  of  representatives  of 
organized  employers.  After  several  weeks  of  con- 
ference a  series  of  principles  was  agreed  on  and 
President  Wilson  was  requested  to  proclaim  this 
code  as  mandatory  upon  all  labor  adjustment  and 
procurement  agencies  of  the  government  and  also 
to  establish  a  national  war  labor  board  to  interpret 
and  apply  these  principles.  This  the  president  did 
in  April,  1918.  The  labor  board  had  two  joint 
chairmen  representing  the  public,  Ex-President  Taft 
and  the  Honorable  Frank  P.  Walsh.  They  ren- 
dered intelligent  and  conspicuous  public  service, 
made  possible  largely  because  of  the  voluntary  co- 
operation of  all  classes  of  citizens  in  behalf  of  a 
cause  bigger  than  their  personal  interest. 

Never  before  in  any  country  had  a  code  of  funda- 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  205 

mental  principles  on  industrial  relations  been  agreed 
upon  nor  a  public  labor  board  established  to  inter- 
pret and  apply  them.  This  fact  establishes  a  pre- 
cedent, highly  significant  and  inspiring.  What  was 
done  for  the  destructive  purposes  of  war,  can  we 
not  do  for  the  constructive  purposes  of  peace? 
Shall  we  confess  our  inability  to  rise  to  the  spiritual 
heights  of  patriotic  devotion  except  in  time  of  war? 
Is  it  not  the  function  of  patriotism  to  "wage  peace" 
as  well  as  to  "wage  war?" 

The  series  of  principles  adopted  for  the  guidance 
of  the  war  labor  board  is  here  reproduced  as  a 
suggestion  for  community  engineering  boards  every- 
where. It  is  as  follows: 

Working  Principles 

The  right  of  workers  to  organize  in  trade  unions  and  to 
bargain  collectively  through  chosen  representatives  is  recog- 
nized and  affirmed.  This  right  shall  not  be  denied,  abridged 
or  interfered  with  by  the  employers  in  any  manner  what- 
soever. 

The  right  of  employers  to  organize  in  associations  or 
groups  and  to  bargain  collectively  through  chosen  repre- 
sentatives is  recognized  and  affirmed.  This  right  shall  not 
be  denied,  abridged  or  interfered  with  by  the  workers  in  any 
manner  whatsoever. 

Employers  should  not  discharge  workers  for  membership 
in  trade  unions,  nor  for  legitimate  trade  union  activities. 

The  workers  in  the  exercise  of  their  right  to  organize 
should  not  use  coercive  measures  of  any  kind  to  induce  per- 
sons to  join  their  organizations  nor  to  induce  employers  to 
bargain  or  deal  therewith. 


206    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

In  establishments  where  the  union  shop  exists  the  same 
shall  continue,  and  the  union  standards  as  to  wages,  hours 
of  labor  and  other  conditions  of  employment  shall  be  main- 
tained. 

In  establishments  where  union  and  non-union  men  and 
women  now  work  together  and  the  employer  meets  only 
with  employees  or  representatives  engaged  in  said  establish- 
ments, the  continuance  of  such  conditions  shall  not  be 
deemed  a  grievance.  The  declaration,  however,  is  not  in- 
tended in  any  manner  to  deny  the  right  or  discourage  the 
practice  of  the  formation  of  labor  unions  or  the  joining  of 
the  same  by  the  workers  in  said  establishments,  as  guaran- 
teed in  the  preceding  section,  nor  to  prevent  the  war  labor 
board  from  urging  or  any  umpire  from  granting,  under  the 
machinery  herein  provided,  improvement  of  their  situation 
in  the  matter  of  wages,  hours  of  labor,  or  other  conditions, 
as  shall  be  found  desirable  from  time  to  time. 

Established  safeguards  and  regulations  for  the  protection 
of  the  health  and  safety  of  workers  shall  not  be  relaxed. 

If  it  shall  become  necessary  to  employ  women  on  work 
ordinarily  performed  by  men,  they  must  be  allowed  equal 
pay  for  equal  work,  and  must  not  be  allotted  tasks  dispro- 
portionate to  their  strength. 

The  basic  eight-hour  day  is  recognized  as  applying  in  all 
cases  in  which  existing  law  requires  it.  In  all  other  cases 
the  question  of  hours  of  labor  shall  be  settled  with  due  re- 
gard to  governmental  necessities  and  the  welfare,  health  and 
proper  comfort  of  the  workers. 

The  maximum  production  of  all  war  industries  should  be 
maintained,  and  methods  of  work  and  operation  on  the  part 
of  employers  or  workers  which  operate  to  delay  or  limit 
production,  or  which  have  a  tendency  to  artificially  increase 
the  cost  thereof,  should  be  discouraged. 

For  the  purpose  of  mobilizing  the  labor  supply  with  a 
view  to  its  rapid  and  effective  distribution,  a  permanent  list 
of  the  numbers  of  skilled  and  other  workers  available  in 


CREATING  A  DISPUTE  207 

different  parts  of  the  country  shall  be  kept  on  file  by  the 
Department  of  Labor,  the  information  to  be  constantly  fur- 
nished—  (1)  by  the  trade  unions;  (2)  by  state  employment 
bureaus  and  federal  agencies  of  like  character;  (3)  by  the 
managers  and  operators  of  industrial  establishments  through- 
out the  country. 

These  agencies  shall  be  given  opportunity  to  aid  in  the 
distribution  of  labor  as  necessity  demands. 

In  fixing  wages,  hours,  and  conditions  of  labor,  regard 
should  always  be  had  to  the  labor  standards,  wage  scales, 
and  other  conditions  prevailing  in  the  localities  affected. 

The  right  of  all  workers,  including  common  laborers,  to 
a  living  wage  is  hereby  declared. 

In  fixing  wages,  minimum  rates  of  pay  shall  be  estab- 
lished which  will  insure  the  subsistence  of  the  worker  and 
his  family  in  health  and  reasonable  comfort. 

v*v 

^  <.  e/. 


< 

v       r .  v 


*> 


CHAPTER   VII 

REVOLUTION    BY    CONSENT 

TN  the  peaceful  pressure  of  public  opinion,  there- 
•*•  fore,  and  not  in  the  application  of  legal  or  mil- 
itary force,  lies  the  hope  of  terminating  industrial 
conflicts.  The  solution  of  the  industrial  problem  is 
to  be  found  in  industry  itself.  This  does  not  mean 
that  the  leaders  of  industry  will  find  this  solution 
unaided.  Their  perspective  is  usually  distorted  by 
their  nearness  to  their  job.  The  tendency  is  for 
them  to  get  buried  under  the  machinery  of  their 
work.  It  is  significant  for  our  purpose  to  remember 
that  almost  never  have  the  courts  been  reformed 
by  lawyers,  or  the  church  by  ministers,  or  medicine 
by  physicians,  or  governmental  machinery  by  office 
holders.  This  is  likewise  the  fact  even  in  science. 
The  scientific  principles  like  the  law  of  conservation 
of  energy  and  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat 
were  not  discovered  by  experts  in  physics.  The 
reason  why  discoveries  in  organized  activities  are 
so  frequently  made,  not  by  experts  engaged  in  them, 
but  by  men  with  practical  experience  in  wider  fields, 
is  because  it  is  the  lookers-on  who  see  most  of 
the  game. 

The  same  principle  applies  to  industry,   though 
208 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  209 

not  to  the  same  extent.  There  is  far  more  hope  of 
free  activity  in  industry  than,  for  example,  in  gov- 
ernment. Industry  appeals  to  a  man's  hope;  gov- 
ernment appeals  to  his  fear.  Industry  stimulates 
initiative;  government  punishes.  Industry  asks 
what  can  you  do ;  government  states  what  you  must 
not  do.  Therefore,  in  business  there  is  ample  justi- 
fication for  the  attitude  of  expectancy,  for  the  hope 
that  its  leaders  will  respond  to  new  ideas. 

It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  if  managers  and 
men  are  to  make  progress  towards  a  solution  of 
their  own  problem,  they  need  the  help  of  an  agency 
like  a  community  engineering  board  to  guide  them, 
to  give  them  perspective,  to  do  for  them  the  work 
of  social  engineering.  It  is  equally  apparent  that, 
if  such  a  board  is  to  make  progress  in  securing  a 
re-organization  of  industry,  the  result  must  be  se- 
cured by  operating  through  the  managers  and  men, 
not  apart  from  them.  It  is  their  business  we  desire 
to  transform.  To  produce  a  mental  revolution  in 
them  is  the  path  to  our  desired  goal.  It  is  also 
apparent  that,  the  essential  nature  of  industrial  ac- 
tivity predisposes  those  engaged  in  it  to  extend' 
mental  hospitality  to  new  ideas.  The  hope  of  in- 
dustry lies  in  industry  itself. 

The  three  cardinal  facts  concerning  managers  and 
men  in  industry — their  dependence  on  outside  guid- 
ance, the  need  for  their  free  co-operation,  and  their 
capacity  for  open-mindedness — all  necessitate  the 
conclusion  that  the  result  we  aim  at  must  be  achieved 


210    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

by  the  method  not  of  force,  but  of  freedom.  Un- 
less a  man  gives  his  inward  consent  to  a  cause  he 
cannot  be  said  to  be  enlisted  in  it  at  all.  The  recon- 
struction of  modern  industry  must,  therefore,  be 
what  J.  A.  Hobson  calls  a  revolution  by  consent. 
It  is  a  significant  phrase  for  a  highly  significant 
idea,  and  suggests  a  social  policy  of  uncalculated 
value  for  the  immediate  future.  The  suggestion  is 
that  a  revolution  can  be  best  effected  in  modern 
industry  by  the  peaceful  process  of  persuading  the 
possessing  class  to  give  their  free  consent  to  it.  This 
suggested  policy  rests  on  the  assumption  that  an 
appeal  to  hope  is  stronger  than  an  appeal  to  fear, 
that  the  social  conscience  is  not  atrophied  in  the 
possessing  classes,  that  it  is  possible  for  them  to 
discover  the  injustice  of  one  class  living  upon  the 
enforced  labor  of  another,  and  even  to  rebel  against 
being  a  party  to  a  system,  which  degrades  their 
fellow  men. 

Mr.  Hobson  gave  currency  to  this  phrase  in  his 
latest  book.  It  was  received  with  somewhat  scorn- 
ful criticism  on  the  ground  that  the  policy  recom- 
mended was  impossible  and  Utopian.  This  is  quite 
a  natural  criticism  to  come  from  those,  who  think 
only  in  terms  of  warfare.  The  criticism  is  not  with- 
out a  touch  of  humor,  when  we  consider  the  bold 
and  naive  assumption  that  the  critics'  method  of 
warfare  now  in  operation,  has  been  productive  of 
practical  results.  I  do  not  know  what  answer  Mr. 
Hobson  would  make  to  his  critics,  but  it  is  here 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  211 

suggested  that  he  might  have  forestalled  the  criti- 
cism by  answering  it  effectively  before  it  was  made. 

We  are  agreed  that  revolution  by  violence  has 
been  ineffective.  Strikes,  lockouts  and  political  ac- 
tion are  the  methods  of  warfare,  and  while  it  is 
freely  granted  that  they  have  been  productive  of 
some  good  in  the  past,  they  are  not  in  any  sense 
satisfactory.  We  are  also  agreed  that  an  idea, 
if  it  can  be  gotten  into  general  circulation,  is  the 
most  dynamic  weapon  available  for  the  defeat  of 
injustice  and  the  progressive  realization  of  construc- 
tive purposes.  The  use  of  physical  or  political 
force  only  retards  the  cause  in  behalf  of  which 
they  are  employed.  This  has  been  demonstrated  to 
the  point  of  weariness.  What  Mr.  Hobson  did 
not  mention,  and  his  critics  have  not  yet  discovered, 
is  the  method  by  which  to  make  effective  an  appeal 
to  reason.  An  idea  is  not  enough;  it  must  be  an 
organized  community  idea.  To  get  results  we  need 
both  a  principle  and  a  program. 

This  is  the  amendment  we  would  make  to  Mr. 
Hobson's  proposed  policy  of  securing  revolution 
by  consent,  with  which  we  are  in  enthusiastic  accord. 
The  attempt  to  secure  the  consent  of  the  possessing 
class  by  an  appeal  to  reason  and  justice,  to  be 
effective,  must  be  made  through  the  community  and 
in  behalf  of  the  common  welfare.  The  community 
principle  is  the  key  to  its  effectiveness.  When  any 
class,  organized  on  the  basis  of  its  self-interest, 
makes  an  appeal,  it  is  handicapped  by  the  suspicion 


212    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

that  it  is  animated  by  unworthy  motives.  But  when 
an  organized  community  finds  its  voice  in  an  organ 
like  a  community  engineering  board,  it  speaks  a 
dynamic  and  undiscounted  word,  a  word  with  wings 
to  it.  The  community  as  the  spokesman  in  behalf 
of  a  reconstructed  industry,  can  do  more  both  for 
the  working  and  the  possessing  class,  than  either 
class  can  do  for  itself.  Revolution  by  consent  is 
correct  in  principle.  The  community  engineering 
board  furnishes  the  program  for  putting  it  into 
effective  operation. 

What  is  it  to  which  we  desire  the  capitalist  to 
give  his  free  consent?  What  is  it,  if  he  consented 
to  it,  that  would  revolutionize  modern  industry? 
He  would  the  more  readily  consent  to  it,  if  he  dis- 
covered it  himself.  What  is  it  that  we  want  him 
to  discover?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  so 
critically  important  that  we  should  spare  no  pains 
in  stating  it  accurately.  For  the  sake  of  clarity,  let 
us  state  it  in  terms  of  a  possible  experience. 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  discovery  is  made  by  the 
president  and  part  owner  of  a  typical  American 
factory.  He  is  self-made  and  acts  the  part.  He 
is  healthy,  accustomed  to  success,  walks  with  the 
swing  of  victory.  He  employs  driving  methods. 
He  is  an  individualist;  thinks  he  has  a  right  to  do 
as  he  pleases  with  what  he  believes  in  his  own.  He 
resents  opposition.  He  prides  himself  on  being 
"practical."  He  is  not  devoid  of  sentiment,  but 
holds  it  is  bad  policy  to  mix  sentiment  with  business. 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  213 

His  relation  to  his  "hands"  is  a  money  relationship 
only  and  that  ends  it.  He  has  had  frequent  experi- 
ence with  strikes  and  lock-outs  and  always  supposed 
he  had  come  out  a  victor.  He  says  he  is  able  to 
take  care  of  himself,  thank  you. 

But  since  the  war  he  is  not  so  sure.  Just  now 
he  is  worried.  He  is  facing  a  new  situation.  The 
men  are  dissatisfied,  suspicious,  resentful.  He  is 
annoyed  and  puzzled.  He  feels  isolated  in  his  own 
plant.  Being  naturally  a  sympathetic  man,  it  is  pain- 
ful to  be  without  the  respect  of  his  fellows.  He 
thought  he  was  self-sufficient,  but  finds  he  isn't. 
Wages,  higher  or  lower,  do  not  remove  the  trouble. 
He  is  bewildered.  The  thing  is  as  real  as  his 
factory  walls,  but  he  can  neither  analyze  nor  explain 
it.  The  men  are  "soldiering"  on  the  job.  They 
go  through  the  motions  as  usual,  but  the  results  are 
not  as  usual.  The  monthly  production  sheets  reveal 
a  serious  condition.  Production  has  fallen  off 
twenty,  thirty,  forty  per  cent.  This  is  ruinous  to 
the  business.  It  may  be  necessary  to  pass  a  dividend. 

He  has  arrived  at  the  point  of  distress.  He  goes 
home  every  night  with  a  mental  headache.  One 
night  on  leaving  the  office  he  spoke  to  the  messenger 
boy,  whose  complete  absorption  in  a  book  for  days 
past  at  odd  moments,  he  had  noticed.  "What  are 
you  reading,  son,"  asked  the  manufacturer.  "The 
greatest  book  in  the  world,"  answered  the  boy. 
"It's  'Robinson  Crusoe.'  I've  read  it  three  times 
already  and  I'm  going  to  read  it  again.  You  ought 


214    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

to  read  it.  Crusoe  had  lots  of  fun  workin'  in  his 
island,  makin'  ink  and  cookin'  tools  and  boats. 
You  can  take  the  book  home,  if  you  want  to;  I've 
just  finished  with  it  for  this  time."  The  man  re- 
membered reading  it  as  a  boy,  but  had  not  thought 
it  worth  while  to  read  since.  Nevertheless  he  took 
the  book  home  that  night,  not  so  much  because  he 
thought  it  had  any  contribution  to  make  to  the 
problem  of  work,  as  because  he  wanted  an  antidote 
for  his  mental  headache,  and  thought  he  might  find 
it  in  an  escape  back  into  the  enthusiasms  of  his 
youth. 

He  found  more  than  he  had  expected.  Reading 
the  book  now  as  a  mature  man  and  with  his  factory 
troubles  as  a  background,  was  like  a  fresh  revelation 
and  an  undiscovered  country.  He  had  searched  for 
silver  and  found  gold.  For  two  evenings  he  was 
absorbed  in  reading  the  book,  indulging  himself 
with  the  refreshing  spirit  of  adventure,  the  desire 
for  which  may  be  suppressed,  but  never  killed  in  a 
normal  man.  He  spent  more  evenings  in  serious 
reflection,  for  out  of  the  book  he  got  more  than 
adventure;  he  got  illumination  on  his  problem. 

He  made  an  attempt  to  state  to  himself  what  the 
book  had  suggested  to  him.  Crusoe's  adventure 
was  an  adventure  about  work.  How  can  we  tie 
work  and  adventure  together?  If,  thought  he,  we 
can  introduce  into  work  the  spirit  of  adventure, 
joy,  self-directed  activity,  we  can  make  some  prog- 
ress with  our  problem.  This  is  the  challenge  Cru- 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  215 

soe  makes  to  me.  I  will  look  it  squarely  in  the 
face,  he  said  in  his  meditation,  and  extract  its 
meaning. 

If  my  workmen  were  men  like  Crusoe,  my  prob- 
lem would  be  wholly  different.  Would  I  have  any 
problem  at  all?  Look  at  Crusoe  there,  working 
at  his  boat,  sailing  it  out  of  his  harbor,  self-reliant, 
eager,  expectant,  absorbed  in  his  work,  doing  it  as 
if  he  loved  it,  feeling  that  it  is  his  own  work.  What 
I  need  in  my  factory,  is  the  Crusoe  type  of  man. 
But  how  am  I  to  get  him?  The  key  to  this  problem 
is  the  workman's  attitude  to  his  work.  But  how 
are  we  to  create  the  right  attitude?  Crusoe  looks 
as  if  he  were  ready  to  break  out  into  singing  as  he 
works.  But  where  is  the  singing  man  in  my  factory? 
He  glares  by  his  absence.  If  we  can  get  men  to 
feel  like  singing  as  they  work,  our  problem  is  solved. 
But  singing  is  an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an 
inward  and  spiritual  condition.  We  can't  get  sing- 
ing, until  we  change  their  state  of  mind. 

But  if  I  had  the  Crusoe  type  of  man,  I  would 
have  to  treat  him  very  differently  than  I  now  treat 
my  men.  If  I  am  to  develop  them  into  the  Crusoe 
type,  or  retain  them  after  I  develop  them,  must 
not  my  treatment  of  them  be  on  a  different  and 
higher  basis?  But  is  not  this  the  natural  right  way 
to  treat  men,  anyway?  They  are  not  on  an  intel- 
lectual equality  with  me,  nor  on  a  social  equality 
with  me,  but  are  they  not  on  a  moral  equality  with 
me?  This  is  a  disturbing  and  revolutionizing  idea. 


216    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

If  the  men  are  ever  to  change  their  attitude  to 
their  work,  must  not  I  change  my  attitude  to  them? 
Obviously,  it  is  up  to  me. 

This  is  the  first  big  idea  I  get  from  a  study  of 
the  kind  of  man  Crusoe  was.  But  I  cannot  stop 
there.  It  means  that  these  men  have  interests  like 
mine.  The  same  needs  and  desires  and  ambitions. 
The  similarity  is  not  always  clearly  apparent.  Their 
desires  are  often  dimly  conceived  and  feebly  ex- 
pressed. But  they  exist,  and  I  wonder  whether  this 
is  not  the  real  cause  of  their  unrest,  even  when 
they  are  unconscious  of  it.  To  be  strictly  honest, 
I  confess  I  know  some  workmen  who  are  my  intel- 
lectual and  moral  superiors.  But  my  workmen  and 
I  not  only  have  like  interests,  but  something  more. 
We  have  common  interests  also.  We  are  engaged 
in  a  common  enterprise.  Neither  I  nor  they  can 
be  successful  or  happy  in  our  work,  without  mutual 
aid  and  free  co-operation.  We  rise  and  fall  to- 
gether. We  have  a  community  of  interest.  I  never 
put  it  that  way  before.  I  never  recognized  our 
interests  as  common.  In  fact,  I  have  acted  as  if 
they  weren't;  as  if  these  workmen  were  my  natural 
enemies,  whereas  they  are  my  natural  allies.  If 
that  is  so,  then  this  constant  conflict  between  us  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  civil  war,  in  which 
neither  side  can  win;  neither  victor  nor  vanquished. 
Its  continuance  is  suicidal.  We  are  like  horn-locked 
deer  in  the  mountains,  engaged  in  combat,  in  which 
an  injury  to  either  is  an  injury  to  both.  How  can 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  217 

civil  war  in  industry  be  stopped,  until  we  recognize 
our  interests  as  common  interests,  and  make  this 
fact  a  working  principle  in  the  conduct  of  industry? 

After  he  had  thus  stated  to  himself  these  two  big 
constructive  ideas,  he  felt  that  he  had  his  feet 
planted  on  a  path  which  held  out  the  promise  of 
leading  him  to  a  solution  of  his  problem.  He  ex- 
perienced the  elation  that  comes  from  creative 
ideas.  He  resolved  that  he  must  talk  over  his  new 
discovery  with  someone.  It  would  be  useless  to 
talk  with  his  superintendent.  He  was  afflicted  with 
a  natural  inability  to  take  in  new  ideas.  Moreover 
his  attitude  to  the  men  was  domineering,  as  is  fre- 
quently the  case  with  men  who  exercise  delegated 
authority.  But  he  could  talk  with  his  daughter. 
She  had  informed  herself  about  the  new  community 
movement,  whose  chief  doctrine  was  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  through  self-activity.  Then, 
too,  she  was  a  woman,  whose  function  it  is  to  be 
a  creator  and  conserver  of  life,  and  was  naturally 
more  interested  in  the  human  factor  in  industry 
than  in  any  other. 

His  daughter  responded  with  sympathetic  under- 
standing to  the  news  of  her  father's  new  outlook. 
She  stimulated  his  dissatisfaction  with  things  as  they 
were,  by  accentuating  the  mutual  advantages  that 
the  proposed  new  policy  would  produce.  She  was 
wise  enough  to  know  that  the  most  helpful  as  well 
as  the  most  effective  criticism  is  criticism  by  con- 
struction. Her  father  sincerely  agreed  with  her, 


218     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

but  her  intuition  told  her  that  his  courage  might  not 
be  quite  equal  to  the  task  of  translating  his  new 
vision  into  practice  without  a  little  external  stimulus. 
She,  therefore,  suggested  that  he  call  into  consul- 
tation a  representative  of  the  new  profession  of 
social  engineering,  to  get  from  him  the  assurance 
that  his  newly  discovered  principles  were  quite  prac- 
tical. This  suggestion  he  approved,  because  while 
he  had  given  his  full  inward  consent  to  the  princi- 
ples, which  Had  gripped  him,  his  conception  of  what 
is  "practical"  had  been  so  distorted  that  he  found 
difficulty  in  adopting  them  as  a  business  policy. 

The  social  engineer  came,  a  strong  up-standing 
man,  who  saw  life  steadily  and  saw  it  whole.  He 
was  a  practical  idealist.  In  his  work  he  combined 
principles  and  their  practice.  He  had  made  the 
great  discovery  that  the  questions  involved  in  in- 
dustry, like  all  other  big  questions,  have  two  sides 
which  are  opposite,  but  not  contradictory. 

The  manufacturer  described  to  him  the  new  and 
recent  labor  troubles  in  his  factory,  what  had  hap- 
pened to  his  outlook  through  the  reading  of  "Robin- 
son Crusoe,"  the  new  vision  he  had  seen,  the  dis- 
turbance it  caused  him,  the  possibility  of  putting  it 
into  operation.  His  report  was  made  somewhat 
timidly,  because  he  felt  a  lurking  cowardice  before 
the  seeming  admission  that  he  was  permitting  senti- 
ment to  influence  a  business  problem.  His  daughter, 
who  sat  in  on  the  conference,  was  quick  to  perceive 
this  masculine  weakness,  and  supplemented  her 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  219 

father's  statement,  not  because  it  needed  it,  but  for 
the  purpose  of  informing  the  social  engineer  that 
she  was  his  ally,  and  to  suggest  that  he  was  free  to 
express  his  convictions  without  reservation. 

After  listening  with  patience  and  understanding, 
asking  a  few  questions  to  disclose  the  true  inward- 
ness of  the  situation,  he  gave  to  the  manufacturer 
his  honest  advice  expressed  in  the  following  state- 
ment: 

"I  congratulate  you.  Yours  is  the  good  fortune 
of  an  open  mind.  For  any  man  with  an  open  mind 
there  is  hope  of  finding  a  solution  for  his  problems. 
It  is  because  of  your  open-mindedness,  that  the  read- 
ing of  'Robinson  Crusoe1  put  you  on  the  track  of 
the  two  big  discoveries  you  have  made.  It  is  an 
unusual  and  picturesque,  and  yet  a  perfectly  simple, 
way  of  approach  to  these  ideas.  It  is  curious  that 
a  book  which  everybody  thinks  he  knows,  is  very 
little  known  for  what  it  really  is.  It  challenges 
modern  industry  at  its  most  vulnerable  spot.  It 
doesn't  matter  how  you  came  by  them,  but  it  was  a 
fortunate  day  for  you,  when  you  made  these  two 
discoveries :  first,  that  everyone  of  your  workmen  is 
a  possible  Crusoe  and  must  be  treated  as  such  to 
develop  him  into  one;  and,  second,  that  the  only 
way  to  develop  them  into  Crusoes,  and  thereby  in- 
crease production  and  decrease  industrial  civil  war 
is  to  establish  a  community  of  principle  between 
you  and  your  workmen. 

"The  two  principles  constitute  one  principle  at 


220    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

heart  and  it  is  the  basis  on  which  modern  industry 
everywhere  must  be  reorganized,  if  it  expects  to 
have  anything  else  but  trouble.  They  are  not  only 
practical,  but  they  are  the  only  practicable  principles 
there  are.  And  for  a  very  obvious  reason;  they  are 
in  harmony  with  human  nature  and  the  human  factor 
is  your  biggest  element  in  production.  It  is  just  the 
opposite  of  practical  to  run  counter  to  human  nature 
and  yet  this  policy  hitherto  has  been  the  common 
practice.  To  reverse  this  practice  and  assist  in  re- 
organizing industry  on  a  sound  and  practical  basis 
is  one  of  the  chief  tasks  of  the  new  profession  of 
social  engineering. 

"I  am  glad  you  yourself  made  this  discovery  in 
time  to  save  yourself  unnecessary  trouble.  A  de- 
cent respect  for  the  opinion  of  mankind  compels  us 
to  admit  that  industry  is  in  serious  need  of  recon- 
struction. The  manufacturers,  who  refuse  to  see 
it  are  inviting  trouble  and  are  sure  to  get  it.  They 
ought  to  realize  that  it  is  not  possible  to  reason  with 
empty  stomachs.  It  is  futile  to  argue  with  the  north 
wind.  The  best  defense  against  the  north  wind, 
as  Lowell  said,  is  to  put  on  your  overcoat.  The 
right  time  to  cure  trouble  is  before  it  happens,  just 
as  you  are  planning  to  do.  The  thing  which  puzzled 
you  in  the  conduct  of  your  workmen  is  something 
which  has  happened  in  Europe  and  America  since 
the  war,  and  which  many  leaders  of  industry  have 
failed  or  refused  to  recognize.  It  is  this :  the  work- 
man since  the  war,  has  become  a  new  and  different 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  221 

kind  of  man.  Everywhere  in  Europe  and  America 
he  has  formulated  his  dissatisfaction.  A  new  con- 
sciousness has  taken  possession  of  him.  He  has 
resolved  on  a  final  refusal  any  longer  to  be  a  machine 
and  has  acquired  an  undefeatable  determination  to 
play  the  part  of  a  man  in  his  work.  This  is  the 
real  cause  of  the  present  unrest.  It  is  not  so  much 
a  complaint  against  details  of  wages  and  working 
conditions,  though  it  often  takes  this  tangible  form; 
it  is  the  structure  of  industry  that  he  challenges. 
He  makes  this  challenge,  because  he  has  acquired 
a  new  mental  attitude  toward  himself.  He  demands 
that  we  practice  the  great  dictum  of  the  philosopher 
Kant,  'Treat  every  man  as  an  end  to  himself,  not 
as  a  means  to  your  ends.'  The  problem  of  modern 
industry  therefore,  is  a  human  problem. 

"The  resultant  unrest  is  not  a  thing  to  be  dis- 
turbed over  or  to  combat,  but  to  be  welcomed.  It 
means  in  my  judgment  an  uncalculated  advance  in 
civilization  and  human  progress.  The  wise  manu- 
facturer will  rejoice  over  the  present  unrest,  and 
will  capitalize  it  to  serve  his  productive  purposes. 
If  these  workmen  want  to  play  a  bigger  part  in 
their  work  and  exercise  their  initiative,  why  don't 
you  let  them?  If  you  did,  it  would  greatly  increase 
the  output  and  make  more  money,  both  for  them 
and  you.  It  will  pay  you  financially.  You  ought 
not  to  do  it  primarily  for  this  reason,  but  this  will 
be  a  natural  by-product  of  such  a  policy.  It  is  the 
simple,  right  thing  to  do,  but  in  the  long  run  the 


222    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

thing  which  is  morally  right  is  the  only  thing,  which 
is  economically  sound. 

"But  the  policy  based  on  the  two  principles  you 
have  discovered  will  produce  results  still  more  fun- 
damental. For  example.  It  will  elevate  your  busi- 
ness to  the  status  of  a  liberal  profession.  What 
is  it  that  justifies  us  in  classifying  a  profession  as 
'liberal*  ?  The  profession  of  minister  and  physician 
bear  this  label.  A  captain  of  industry  should  be 
classified  with  them,  but  he  isn't,  not  to  any  con- 
siderable extent  as  yet.  This  is  his  natural  position 
as  Ruskin  pointed  out  in  his  list  of  five  professions 
related  to  the  necessities  of  life: 

"  'The  Soldier's  profession  is  to  defend  life. 

"  'The  Pastor's,  to  teach  it. 

"  'The  Physician's,  to  keep  it  in  health. 

'  'The  Lawyer's,  to  enforce  justice  in  it. 

1  'The  Merchant's,  to  provide  for  it. 
"  'And  the  duty  of  all  these  men  is,  on  due  occasion, 
to  die  for  it. 

'  'The  Soldier,  rather  than  leave  his  post  in  battle. 

'  'The  Physician,  rather  than  leave  his  post  in  plague. 

'  'The  Pastor,  rather  than  teach  falsehood. 

'  'The  Lawyer,  rather  than  countenance  injustice. 
"  'The  Merchant,  what  is  his  "due  occasion"  of  death?' 

"Even  the  soldier,  although  his  profession  is  an 
ugly,  destructive  and  a  morally  contradictory  busi- 
ness, is  nevertheless  accorded  a  special  regard  in 
men's  thoughts,  and  for  good  reason.  His  service 
is  given  in  behalf  of  a  cause  bigger  than  his  personal 
interest,  for  which  he  is  willing  to  spend  the  last 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  223 

full  measure  of  his  devotion.  This  is  why  we  hang 
over  our  mantlepieces  a  sword  or  musket.  Why 
do  we  not  hang  by  their  side  a  hoe,  or  yardstick  or 
piece  of  machinery?  The  reason  is  obvious.  There 
is  one  thing,  and  one  alone,  which  can  give  to  busi- 
ness the  status  of  a  liberal  profession,  and  that  is 
to  introduce  into  it  the  element  of  public  service  as 
a  controlling  motive.  In  his  'Business  a  Profession' 
Mr.  Justice  Brandeis  states  the  three  distinguishing 
marks  of  a  profession  to  be  'preliminary  training, 
a  calling  pursued  largely  for  others  and  not  merely 
for  one's  self,  and  where  the  financial  return  is  not 
the  accepted  measure  of  success.'  These  three  are 
one.  A  liberal  profession  is  a  public  service.  We 
all  recognize  that  a  minister  or  physician  should 
receive  a  decent  compensation  for  his  service,  but 
if  he  should  make  profiteering  his  chief  motive,  he 
would  immediately  lose  his  status  in  the  community. 
Shall  we  require  the  soldier  and  minister  and  physi- 
cian to  work  for  the  common  welfare,  and  permit 
the  merchant  to  work  for  his  own?  Is  it  not  both 
his  duty  and  privilege  to  sacrifice  comfort  and  riches 
rather  than  do  injury  and  injustice  to  his  fellowmen, 
either  his  competitors  or  his  workmen?  The  man 
who  does  so  is  just  as  heroic  as  the  man  who  dies 
on  the  field  of  battle — if  not  more  so,  for  the  cour- 
age to  live  heroically  is  more  rare  than  the  courage 
to  die  heroically. 

"When  you  have  transformed  your  business  into 
a  liberal  profession  by  adopting  the  policy  we  are 


224    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

discussing,  you  will  then  make  a  further  discovery, 
namely,  that  you  will  get  real  joy  out  of  your  busi- 
ness. Merely  to  make  money  is  not  a  big  enough 
aim  for  an  able  American  business  man  like  your- 
self, and  will  never  satisfy  you.  Whatever  divi- 
dends of  money  your  business  yields,  if  it  does  not 
also  yield  some  dividends  of  joy,  the  business  cannot 
honestly  be  reckoned  a  success.  If  you  miss  joy  you 
miss  the  Hamlet  of  life's  drama.  The  real  thing  is 
found,  not  apart  from  your  work,  but  through  your 
work.  I  suggest  that  you  open  a  new  page  in  your 
ledger  and  head  it  'Dividends  of  Joy,'  and  keep  a 
careful  account  of  this  product.  Please  note  that 
it  cannot  be  bought  with  money.  It  is  not  a  com- 
modity or  a  dower,  but  a  personal  achievement.  It 
is  a  by-product  of  service.  It  comes  only  as  the 
natural  product  of  the  manhood  policy  you  plan  to 
adopt. 

"You  will  notice  that  I  have  omitted  to  say  any- 
thing about  the  detailed  application  of  this  policy. 
There's  a  reason.  In  any  problem  the  place  to  begin 
is  at  the  beginning.  It  is  largely  labor  lost  to  at- 
tempt the  application  of  anything  until  we  first  deter- 
mine what  it  is  we  aim  to  apply.  Moreover  you 
must  accept  this  manhood  principle,  not  because  it 
pays,  but  because  it  is  right.  If  you  adopt  it  merely 
because  it  pays,  you  will  not  understand  how  to 
operate  it,  and  you  will  defeat  your  own  purpose. 
We  will  consider  its  application  later,  but  at  this 
point  let  me  give  you  a  formula  for  the  practice  of 


REVOLUTION  BY  CONSENT  225 

the  principles  you  have  stated.  It  is  this:  'Stop 
making  shoes  and  begin  making  men  and  let  the 
men  make  the  shoes.'  The  trouble  with  industry  is 
that  it  is  unbalanced.  It  has  been  operated  by  book- 
keepers instead  of  by  engineers.  The  managers 
have  thought  almost  exclusively  of  profits  as  they 
appeared  on  the  books,  and  forgot  the  creators  of 
the  profits.  The  formula,  I  suggest,  will  restore  the 
lost  balance.  It  will  produce  more  shoes,  but  it 
will  do  so  only  because  the  new  policy  enables  the 
men  to  receive  personal  development  and  satisfac- 
tion in  the  process.  I,  therefore,  earnestly  urge 
you,  as  the  first  step  toward  a  solution  of  your  prob- 
lem, to  make  a  decision  and  adopt  the  manhood 
principle  as  your  future  policy." 

Before  the  social  engineer  had  finished  these  re- 
marks, the  manufacturer's  mental  headache  was 
gone  and  he  had  decided  to  adopt  the  new  policy. 
He  did  it  without  reservation,  because  he  did  not 
in  fact  need  to  be  convinced  of  the  merit  of  the  new 
policy.  That  was  self-evident.  What  he  needed 
was  not  advice,  but  confirmation.  He  also  engaged 
the  social  engineer  to  assist  him  to  put  the  new 
policy  into  operation. 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  before  the  social  engi- 
neer's engagement  in  the  factory  was  ended,  he  had 
contracted  another  with  the  manufacturer's  daugh- 
ter, who  had  been  his  efficient  ally  in  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  new  policy.  The  event  was  a  foregone 
conclusion  through  the  operation  of  the  law  of 


226    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

natural  selection.  There  was  a  time  when  her  father 
had  entertained  the  hope  that  she  would  marry  his 
superintendent.  But  long  ago  he  had  seen  how 
impossible  it  was  of  realization.  The  disparity  of 
outlook  between  them  on  the  conduct  of  the  indus- 
try was  too  great.  The  moral  issue  involved  in  the 
industrial  problem  could  not  be  confined  to  the  fac- 
tory walls.  It  invaded  his  household.  It  would 
have  produced  a  real  separation  in  sympathy  be- 
tween him  and  his  daughter  if  he  had  not  extended 
mental  hospitality  to  the  new  idea.  The  ghost  of 
this  new  idea  had  visited  his  fireside  for  years,  and 
it  no  doubt  had  helped  to  equip  him  with  insight  to 
receive  "Robinson  Crusoe's"  message. 

When  he  perceived  what  natural  comrades  his 
daughter  and  the  social  engineer  were,  he  had 
pleasure  in  approving  their  engagement.  Now  he 
understood  that  similarity  of  mind  and  purpose  was 
essential  to  success  in  marriage,  just  as  a  community 
of  principle  between  him  and  his  workmen  was  essen- 
tial for  success  in  industry.  After  all,  he  thought, 
is  not  the  extension  of  the  family  spirit  to  the  fac- 
tory the  real  key  to  the  solution  of  its  problems? 


CHAPTER   VIII 

A   BILL    OF    PARTICULARS 

/"T"VHE  magical  effect  of  the  manufacturer's  final 
•*•  decision  and  spoken  word  to  the  social  engi- 
neer, was  immediately  apparent.  When  he  returned 
to  his  factory,  he  was  a  new  man.  His  workmen 
at  once  perceived  the  change.  Everywhere  they 
asked,  "What's  come  over  the  boss?"  Their  in- 
stinct told  them  something  had  happened.  They 
could  see  it  in  his  eye,  in  his  attitude  toward  them, 
in  his  new  respect  for  their  personality.  The  trans- 
forming power  of  an  idea  had  produced  a  new 
atmosphere  in  the  factory.  An  atmosphere  is  as 
real  as  the  shoes  the  men  are  making,  and  quite  the 
most  important  item  in  a  factory's  equipment.  It 
cannot  be  produced  artificially,  because  it  is  a  spir- 
itual product,  and  therefore  must  be  genuine.  A 
genuine  mental  revolution  had  taken  place  in  this 
man.  And  a  mental  revolution  in  the  owner  meant 
a  revolution  by  consent  in  the  reorganization  of  his 
industry.  He  perceived  that  his  new  point  of  view 
was  infectious  and  had  half  solved  his  problem 
before  he  had  begun  its  detailed  adjustment.  In 
his  judgment  this  fact  furnished  complete  confirma- 
tion that  he  had  chosen  the  right  course  of  action. 
As  he  considered  the  application  of  the  new 
227 


228    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

policy,  it  became  clear  to  him  that  the  manhood 
principle,  if  broken  up  into  its  constituent  elements 
.  for  the  sake  of  clarity,  would  logically  mean  such 
principles  as  these :  Democracy  applied  to  manage- 
ment; justice  applied  to  profits;  art  applied  to 
manual  work;  and  leisure  provided  for  personal 
growth.  These  are  self-evident  propositions.  He 
had  no  hesitation  about  approving  of  them  in  prin- 
ciple. But  he  was  an  honest  man;  not  a  hypocrite. 
He  resented  the  suggestion  that  he  approve  the 
new  policy  in  principle,  but  deny  it  in  practice.  He 
started  the  search  for  a  program.  He  began  to 
formulate  a  bill  of  particulars  for  the  actual  opera- 
tion of  the  new  policy. 

If,  now,  this  man  or  any  other  captain  of  indus- 
try honestly  desired  a  bill  of  particulars,  organically 
related  to  the  manhood  principle,  which  he  had  mor- 
ally approved,  what  items  should  it  contain?  It  is 
here  suggested  that  it  would  contain  four  essential 
items,  and  that  they  are  the  sufficient  and  compre- 
hensive guides  in  his  program  of  action.  They  are 
as  follows: 

1.  Treat  capital  and  wages  on  the  same  basis. 
They  are  both  things  and  the  same  kind  of  things 
and  should  be  classified  together.  Reckon  a  fair 
dividend  on  invested  capital  and  a  fair  living  wage, 
as  constituting  merely  two  indispensable  elements 
in  the  cost  of  production.  The  question  of  work- 
men is  a  basically  different  question  and  requires  a 
different  treatment. 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  229 

2.  Divide  net  profits  among  owners  and  work- 
men.   By  workmen  we  mean  all  workers  either  with 
brain,  or  hand,  or  with  both.     There  should  be  a 
dividend  on  wages  as  well  as  one  on  capital.    After 
a  fair  basic  dividend  is  paid  on  capital  and  a  fair 
basic  wage  is  paid  for  labor,  and  after  a  reserve 
fund  is  provided  to  offset  the  deterioration  of  build- 
ings and  machinery,  and  a  reserve  fund  provided  to 
offset  the  deterioration  of  workmen  during  periods 
of  enforced  idleness,  the  net  profit  should  be  divided 
in  a  fair  and  fixed  ratio  between  the  capital  invested 
and  the  workmen,  the  two  sources  from  which  the 
profit  was  produced.     This  is  not  a  bonus  given  as 
a  charity;  nor  is  it  a  scheme  of  profit-sharing  as  a 
stimulus  to  production;  it  is  a  division  of  earnings 
as  an  act  of  justice  between  partners  in  a  joint  enter- 
prise. 

3.  Put  production  for  use  in  the  first  place  and 
production   for  profit  in    the  second  place.      This 
means  the  pride  of  workmanship  in  the  product  as 
a  protection  against  the  temptation  against  the  hasty 
production  of  cheap  and  shoddy  goods.     This  prin- 
ciple introduces  the  element  of  public  service  into 
the  enterprise.     It  will  help  to  insure  a  permanent 
market  for  the  product  with  the  consuming  public. 
It  will  stimulate  the  element  of  joy  in  work,  which 
has  a  direct  bearing  on  production  and  labor  turn- 
over.    So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  introduce  the  ele- 
ment of  art  into  the  process  of  work,  it  will  be  a 
safeguard  against  the  spiritual  blight  of  treadmill 


230    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

monotony,  due  to  automatic  machinery,  which,  now 
and  during  the  next  fifty  years,  will  constitute  one 
of  the  most  serious  and  baffling  of  the  problems  of 
modern  industry. 

4.  Make  workmen  members  of  the  organiza- 
tion in  which  they  work.  This  will  enable  a  work- 
man to  feel  that  the  work  he  is  doing  is  his  work, 
which  means  a  new  world  for  him.  Responsibility 
and  freedom  should  be  riveted  together.  It  is  a 
moral  contradiction  to  demand  responsibility  and 
not  grant  freedom  to  discharge  it  effectively.  To 
secure  a  man's  free  cooperation,  he  must  have  a 
voice  in  the  management.  This  proposed  union  of 
managers  and  men  as  members  of  the  enterprise 
must  be  a  real  union,  and  not  a  "yellow  union."  It 
must  be  a  union  with  power  in  it,  otherwise  work- 
men will  keep  the  union  they  now  have.  There 
must  be  no  joker  in  it,  no  tricks  of  any  kind.  They 
always  act  as  a  boomerang  and  delay  progress.  The 
German  Diet  before  the  war  was  called  UA  Hall  of 
Echoes."  Its  members  could  talk  all  they  pleased, 
but  could  do  nothing.  If  in  an  industry  a  proposed 
democratic  plan  of  cooperation  provides  that  all 
questions  shall  be  settled  in  the  counting  room  and 
permits  the  workmen  to  do  nothing  but  talk,  this 
may  do  some  good,  but  it  will  not  meet  the  issue. 
Talk  is  good,  but  talk  merely  for  talk's  sake  gets 
us  no  where.  It  must  be  responsible  talk,  that  is, 
the  discussion  of  questions  concerning  which  the 
talkers  are  expected  to  take  some  action.  It  must 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  231 

be  organic  democracy,  and  not  sham  democracy.  If 
the  men  are  given  a  real  part  to  play  as  members 
of  the  organization,  the  first  obvious  effect  will  be 
to  end  strikes,  because  men  do  not  strike  against 
themselves.  This  is  a  negative  result  but  indispen- 
sable as  the  beginning  of  positive  and  creative 
achievements,  which  constitute  the  new  policy's  chief 
aim. 

This  quartet  of  principles  is  not  a  complete  bill 
of  particulars;  just  the  beginning  of  it.  But  they 
are  basic  and  universally  applicable  in  adapting  the 
policy  to  the  particular  requirements  of  various  in- 
dustries. A  policy  based  on  these  principles  would 
pay  financially.  When  one  reckons  the  frightful 
loss  due  to  strikes  and  lock-outs  and  the  decreased 
production  caused  by  an  armed  neutrality  state  of 
mind  in  the  workmen,  it  would  pay  handsomely. 
But  it  ought  not  to  be  adopted  because  it  pays  finan- 
cially. It  ought  to  be  adopted  because  it  is  right, 
and  also  because  we  want  to  reap  some  dividends 
of  joy  as  well  as  dividends  of  money.  It  would  be 
a  wise  policy  whether  it  paid  financially  or  not.  The 
manufacturer,  who  gets  out  of  his  business  nothing 
but  dividends  in  money  is  cheating  himself  and 
doesn't  know  it. 

The  proposed  new  policy  is  simple.  It  is  not 
complex,  but  it  is  difficult.  Its  operation  will  require 
patience,  thoughtful  adaptation  to  a  great  variety 
of  details,  expert  knowledge  of  human  nature,  edu- 
cation of  owners,  managers  and  workmen,  sincerity 


232    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

on  the  part  of  leaders,  mental  hospitality  to  new 
ideas.  These  requirements  make  it  difficult,  but 
the  policy  itself  is  quite  simple.  Its  difficulty  finds 
ample  compensation  in  the  fascination  of  doing 
creative  work  of  this  type. 

It  is  because  the  work  is  new  and  difficult  that  it 
calls  for  the  service  of  the  new  profession  of  social 
engineering,  which  is  now  being  created  to  meet  the 
need  for  it.  Men  like  Gantt,  Steinmetz,  Wolf, 
Polakov  and  Leitch  are  pioneers  in  it.  They  do 
not  call  themselves  by  the  new  title,  social  engineers, 
but  this  is  the  type  of  work  they  have  been  doing. 
This  profession  is  destined  to  be  of  great  national 
importance,  and  to  rank  as  a  liberal  profession 
alongside  of  that  of  a  physician,  a  minister,  and  a 
lawyer. 

It  is  essential  to  make  a  clearly  marked  distinction 
between  a  social  and  an  efficiency  engineer.  The 
work  of  efficiency  engineering  is  concerned  with 
book-keeping,  handling  of  materials  and  machines, 
elimination  of  waste  motions  and  other  questions  of 
detail.  These  are  important  details,  but  they  are 
details.  On  the  contrary  the  social  engineer  deals, 
not  with  details  primarily,  but  with  policies.  He 
treats  the  basic  question  in  industry.  His  work  is 
that  of  industrial  statesmanship.  Of  course  all 
good  titles  are  so  speedily  spoiled  by  loose  and  care- 
less usage,  that  we  need  not  waste  time  by  insisting 
on  their  accurate  use,  so  long  as  we  have  a  clear 
conception  of  the  two  types  of  work.  In  practice 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  233 

they  will  doubtless  tend  to  overlap,  for  there  can 
be  no  real  efficiency,  while  basic  defects  of  policy 
continue.  But  no  one  ought  to  deceive  himself  by 
confusing  the  two  types  of  work. 

Failure  to  make  this  simple  distinction  is  so  com- 
mon, and  is  so  frequently  a  designed  failure,  that 
it  will  be  helpful  to  make  it  clear  by  a  pointed  illus- 
tration. The  test  of  sanity  in  some  asylums  is  to 
take  the  patient  to  a  trough,  partially  filled  with 
water,  and  into  which  an  open  spigot  pours  new 
supplies  of  water.  The  patient  is  asked  to  bail  the 
water  out  of  the  trough.  If  he  attempts  to  do  so 
without  first  turning  off  the  flow,  he  is  regarded  as 
insane,  and  properly  so.  Efficiency  engineering,  as 
hitherto  understood,  assumed  that  a  workman  was 
a  machine  and  concerned  itself  with  the  kind  of 
vessel  to  be  used  in  bailing  out  the  water,  the  method 
of  using  the  fewest  motions,  and  similar  questions 
of  mechanical  detail.  On  the  other  hand  the  social 
engineer,  assumes  that  a  workman  is  a  human  being, 
and  concerns  himself  with  the  task  of  turning  off 
the  spigot,  preventing  troubles  by  dealing  with  their 
source  of  supply,  eliminating  the  fundamental  de- 
fects of  the  industrial  type  of  work,  and  is  so  obvi- 
ously sane  that  the  probability  is  that  efficiency 
engineering  will  in  the  near  future  develop  into 
social  engineering,  which  is  as  it  should  be,  for  then 
we  will  have  real  efficiency  for  the  first  time. 

This  hopeful  outlook  inspired  the  significant  reso- 
lution recently  adopted  by  the  Federation  of  Ameri- 


234    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

can  Engineering  Societies,  of  which  Herbert  Hoover 
was  elected  the  first  president.  It  is  as  follows : 

"Engineering  is  the  science  of  controlling  the 
forces  and  of  utilizing  the  materials  of  nature  for 
the  benefit  of  man,  and  the  art  of  organizing  and 
of  directing  human  activities  in  connection  there- 
with. 

"As  service  to  others  is  the  expression  of  the 
highest  motive  to  which  men  respond  and  as  duty 
to  contribute  to  the  public  welfare  demands  the  best 
efforts  men  can  put  forth, 

"Now,  THEREFORE,  the  engineering  and  allied 
technical  societies  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
through  the  formation  of  the  Federated  American 
Engineering  Societies,  realize  a  long  cherished  ideal 
— a  comprehensive  organization  dedicated  to  the 
service  of  the  community,  state  and  nation." 

The  aim  of  other  engineers,  as  this  resolution 
indicates,  is  to  develop  material  resources  and  use 
the  human  factor  as  a  means  to  this  end,  but  a  social 
engineer's  aim  is  to  develop  human  resources  and 
use  the  material  factor  as  a  means  to  this  end.  The 
two  types  of  engineers  have  much  in  common  and 
their  work  is  harmonious,  but  the  approach  to  their 
tasks  is  quite  distinct  and  different.  The  fact  that 
other  engineers  have  recognized  the  necessity  of 
directing  human  activities  from  the  standpoint  of 
public  service  in  order  to  make  their  work  effective, 
is  a  striking  indication  of  the  need  for  the  new  pro- 
fession of  social  engineering. 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  235 

Inasmuch  as  social  engineering  deals  with  funda- 
mental issues,  it  will  be  observed  that  the  bill  of 
particulars  made  no  mention  of  labor  unions.  A 
labor  union  is  not  a  fundamental  issue  but  a  detail. 
It  aims  to  secure  fundamental  results,  but  its  exist- 
ence or  non-existence  is  not  a  basic  question.  It  is 
an  effect,  not  a  cause.  A  union,  like  every  other 
organization,  is  a  means  to  an  end,  not  an  end  in 
itself.  By  far  too  much  is  made  over  labor  unions, 
both  by  capitalists  and  by  workmen  themselves. 
They  both  ought  to  center  their  attention  on  the 
real  issues  at  stake.  Most  of  the  talk  about  unions 
is  camouflage.  The  claim  of  some  manufacturers 
that  they  have  a  right  to  organize  for  their  own 
benefit,  and  their  workmen  have  not,  is  nothing  but 
comedy,  if  it  is  not  something  worse.  It  is  a  sug- 
gestion that  the  impartial  public  cannot  recognize 
as  worthy  even  of  consideration. 

The  attempt  to  carry  on  a  war  of  extermination 
against  labor  unions  is  surprisingly  stupid,  as  well 
as  futile.  It  is  the  evidence  either  of  an  inexcusable 
ignorance  of  history  and  human  nature,  or  an  un- 
willingness to  face  the  issues  they  raise.  Labor 
unions  are  neither  to  be  feared  nor  fought,  but 
recognized  with  gratitude  in  spite  of  their  defects. 
They  are  the  most  effective  agencies  we  have  for 
genuine  Americanization,  for  they  operate  on  the 
American  ideals  of  free  association,  free  speech  and 
free  action.  In  the  light  of  their  history  and 
achievement,  it  would  be  nothing  short  of  a  calamity 


236    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

to  the  progress  of  human  decency  in  general  and  to 
the  American  experiment  at  democracy  in  particular, 
if  they  should  go  out  of  existence,  at  least  at  present. 

The  facts  it  seems  to  me  make  this  the  only  fair- 
minded  as  well  as  the  only  wise  attitude  to  take 
towards  labor  unions.  Such  an  attitude  received 
forceful  expression  in  the  progressive  and  states- 
manlike report  recently  issued  by  the  New  Jersey 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  It  says:  "A  movement  is 
now  on  foot  which,  misusing  the  name  of  'open 
shop'  and  'American  plan/  is  smashing  labor  organ- 
izations throughout  the  country  by  locking  the 
unions  out  and  forcibly  deunionizing  the  workman. 
Together  with  the  abuses  of  unionism  this  move- 
ment is  destroying  the  constructive  substance  of 
unionism  and  stifling  the  just  democratic  aspirations 
of  the  workmen.  It  is  undermining  the  confidence 
of  labor  in  employers  and  ruining  the  foundation 
for  co-operation  between  them.  Similar  campaigns 
in  former  periods  of  depression  have  resulted  only 
in  redoubled  growth  of  unionism  and  the  adoption 
by  it  of  more  extreme  measures  in  the  periods  of 
prosperity  which  followed  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  the  results  of  this  campaign  will  be 
different.  Campaigns  of  this  nature  are  leading  to 
oppression  by  employers  and  are  playing  into  the 
hands  of  revolutionary  elements.  Thus  the  cycle 
continues  with  the  participants  in  continuous  and 
senseless  warfare." 

This  would  be  the  universal  opinion,  if  it  were 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  237 

not  for  the  state  of  war  existing  between  organized 
capitalists  and  organized  workmen.  War  is  always 
the  fruitful  mother  of  prejudice.  When  warfare 
is  replaced  by  cooperation,  the  owners  and  managers 
will  support  labor  unions  and  assist  them  in  work- 
ing out  the  big  constructive  social  program,  which 
the  labor  guilds  once  operated  in  Europe. 

In  case  we  desired  to  abolish  labor  unions,  there 
is  one  simple  and  effective  method  of  doing  it,  a 
method  with  which  workmen  everywhere  would  be 
in  agreement.  It  is  to  remove  the  reason  for  their 
existence.  If  this  were  done,  attendance  at  their 
meetings  would  naturally  diminish  and  they  would 
go  out  of  existence.  Their  members  would  not  want 
them  to  continue,  if  they  cease  to  have  any  cause  to 
serve.  Labor  unions  originated  and  now  exist  to 
work  for  the  establishment  of  the  manhood  prin- 
ciple as  an  industrial  policy,  which  means  a  just 
distribution  of  earnings,  decent  living  conditions,  a 
chance  for  joy  in  work  and  an  opportunity  for  self- 
expression.  The  effort  of  workmen  in  behalf  of 
this  cause  can  never  cease  until  they  cease  to  be  men 
or  until  God  is  dead.  To  them  this  cause  has  be- 
come a  religion,  as  in  fact  it  is.  To  expect  them 
to  abandon  organized  effort  in  its  behalf,  is  the 
same  as  it  would  be  to  ask  a  father  to  abandon  all 
effort  in  behalf  of  his  own  child's  welfare.  Let  us 
be  done  with  foolish  and  insincere  talk  about  de- 
tails. Let  us  talk  about  the  question  itself.  We 
are  not  cowards;  why  should  there  be  any  sugges- 


238    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

tion  of  fear  to  face  it.  It  is  as  big  and  fascinating 
as  life  itself. 

This  then  is  the  nature  of  a  bill  of  particulars 
for  the  operation  of  the  manhood  principle  in  indus- 
try. I  have  an  intuition  that  at  this  point  some 
reader  has  a  strong  impulse  to  rise  to  a  point  of 
information.  He  says:  I  thought  a  bill  of  particu- 
lars meant  a  detailed  account  of  how  the  new  policy 
operated  in  particular  factories.  Is  it  your  plan 
to  give  such  an  account?  I  would  say  to  my  hypo- 
thetical questioner  that  what  he  asks  for  is  not  a 
bill  of  particulars  on  the  policy  itself.  I  have  al- 
ready given  that.  What  he  asks  for  is  a  report  or 
survey  of  some  one's  experiment  with  it,  a  very 
different  thing.  Such  a  report  may  reveal  only  an 
approximation  to  the  policy,  or  a  variety  of  adapta- 
tions of  it,  or  it  may  be  a  distortion  of  it,  or  it  may 
only  reveal  some  manager's  capacity  or  incapacity 
to  understand  it.  I  would  also  ask  my  questioner 
to  note  carefully  that  the  importation  into  industry 
of  certain  democratic  forms  borrowed  from  politics, 
where  they  have  not  been  a  conspicuous  success, 
are  only  stepping-stones  toward  our  goal.  Unless 
democracy  in  industry  is  some  improvement  over  the 
type  now  in  operation  in  politics,  it  will  not  get  us 
far.  I  would  also  warn  my  questioner  against  the 
temptation  and  common  practice  to  use  the  request 
for  a  survey  as  the  means  of  side-stepping  a  moral 
responsibility. 

With  these  three  safeguards  in  mind,  I  would  say 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  239 

that  accounts  of  the  attempts  to  operate  democracy 
in  industry  by  the  method  of  trial  and  error  are 
most  helpful  and  stimulating.  I  refer  my  ques- 
tioner to  two  recent  books.  First,  the  enterprising 
and  suggestive  book  by  John  R.  Commons,  and  his 
collaborators,  called  "Industrial  Government," 
which  describes  eighteen  various  experiments  with 
democracy  in  industry.  Second,  the  illuminating 
book  by  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  called  "The  New 
Industrial  Unrest,"  which  describes  several  more 
interesting  experiments  and  triumphs  of  industrial 
democracy,  together  with  a  penetrating  and  whole- 
some analysis  of  the  present  unrest  in  industry. 

I  confess  that  I  had  planned  to  include  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  operation  of  the  new  policy  in  six  typical 
trials  of  it,  three  from  my  own  experience,  and 
three  from  that  of  others.  I  had  intended  to  de- 
scribe the  operation  of  the  new  policy  as  it  has  been 
partially  adopted  in  the  settlement  which  ended  the 
recent  coal  strike  in  England.  This  settlement  pro- 
vided for  the  establishment  of  a  national  wage  pool, 
the  acceptance  of  a  material  cut  in  wages,  the  divi- 
sion of  surplus  profits  in  the  ratio  of  eighty-three 
per  cent,  to  the  coal  hewers  and  seventeen  per  cent, 
to  the  mine  owners.  The  immediate  result  of  the 
plan  was  an  increase  in  production  to  a  point  higher 
than  before  the  strike,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  one 
hundred  thousand  fewer  men  are  employed  and  two 
hundred  pits  have  not  been  reopened.  This  is  an 
astonishing  result.  It  is  unexpected,  but  not  at  all 


240    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

surprising.  That  justice  is  economically  profitable 
ought  not  to  be  a  surprising  discovery.  It  would 
not  be,  if  men  had  not  usually  refused  to  do  the 
right  thing  until  they  had  guarantees  about  results. 
But  it  ceases  to  be  right,  and  becomes  merely 
enlightened  selfishness,  if  done  for  the  sake  of 
guarantees,  and,  moreover,  there  is  no  way  of  dis- 
covering what  the  result  will  be  without  the  venture 
of  courage  to  do  the  simple  right. 

Therefore,  for  the  sake  of  this  discussion  I  have 
concluded,  that  it  would  be  more  helpful  to  omit 
all  reports  on  the  operation  of  the  new  policy.  I 
am  most  desirous  of  avoiding  the  common  danger 
of  diverting  our  attention  from  the  policy  itself  by 
a  consideration  of  its  details.  I  am  writing  this 
book  to  make  a  simple,  clear  statement,  divorced 
from  learned  complexities,  of  the  manhood  prin- 
ciple as  an  industrial  policy,  and  as  the  only  possible 
solution  of  the  industrial  problem.  There  are  so 
very  few  books  which  state  the  issue  for  debate  in 
modern  industry,  that  it  seems  wiser  for  us  to  do 
no  fishing  up  side  streams,  but  keep  to  the  main 
current  of  our  discussion.  The  industrial  war  is 
so  suicidal  in  its  waste  of  money  and  good-will,  and 
so  big  with  consequences  for  the  national  welfare, 
that  we  should  spare  no  pains  in  the  attempt  to 
discover  what  the  war  is  about.  Is  it  not  a  curious 
tragi-comedy  of  modern  history  that  we  have  per- 
mitted the  industrial  civil  war  to  proceed  on  its 
destructive  course  for  so  long  a  period  without  mak- 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  241 

ing  any  attempt  to  discover  its  fundamental  cause? 
Certainly  there  is  little  hope  of  finding  a  remedy 
unless  we  do  discover  the  real  cause  and  acquire  the 
courage  to  face  it. 

There  is  a  still  further  fundamental  reason  for 
omitting  the  reports  on  the  successful  operation  of 
the  new  policy.  I  want  to  utilize  the  omission  to 
make  emphatic  my  conviction  that  the  manhood 
principle  needs  no  demonstration.  It  is  not  the 
kind  of  thing  to  be  demonstrated,  but  the  kind  of 
thing  to  be  discovered  and  accepted.  I  am  not 
stating  the  manhood  principle  as  an  opinion  or  an 
invention,  or  a  theory;  I  am  announcing  it  as  the 
discovery  of  a  formula  of  economics,  a  law  of 
human  society  which  any  man  may  discover  for 
himself.  It  is  a  self-evident  proposition.  It  is  an 
organic  law  of  the  universe,  and  therefore  rests  on 
observation  and  experience.  It  is  like  the  law  of 
gravitation,  which  needs  no  demonstration.  You 
do  not  collect  reports  on  the  number  of  men  who 
broke  their  legs  by  walking  off  high  buildings  and 
steep  embankments  before  you  conclude  that  you 
ought  to  co-operate  with  the  law  of  gravitation. 
Just  as  "nature  is  governed  only  by  obeying  her" 
so  human  nature  is  controlled  only  by  respecting 
her  laws  of  behaviour.  The  manhood  principle 
is  manifestly  a  difficult  law  to  follow.  So  is  truth- 
telling;  but  you  would  not  dare  to  commend  lying 
— not  in  public — because  truth-telling  is  imperfectly 
practiced.  So  is  manhood  suffrage ;  but  because  a 


242    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

large  proportion  of  qualified  voters  fail  to  exercise 
this  right,  we  do  not  propose  to  surrender  what  it 
has  taken  centuries  of  struggle  to  achieve.  So  are 
the  Ten  Commandments;  but  because  as  yet  they 
are  nowhere  in  perfect  operation,  we  do  not  mean 
to  abandon  our  effort  to  make  them  the  laws  of  the 
social  order. 

If  you  still  insist  on  a  demonstration  of  the  man- 
hood principle  in  industry,  all  you  need  to  do  is  to 
look  back  over  the  industrial  history  of  the  past 
one  hundred  fifty  years.  The  validity  of  an  organic 
law  is  demonstrated  quite  as  much  by  its  infraction 
as  by  its  observance.  The  penalties  resulting  from 
its  violation  constitute  its  sanctions.  The  disastrous 
results  from  the  failure  to  practice  the  manhood 
principle  during  the  past  one  hundred  fifty  years, 
and  still  apparent  everywhere,  furnish  all  the  demon- 
stration any  wise  man  needs.  It  is  demonstration 
to  the  point  of  monotony.  The  burden  of  proof 
is  not  on  the  man  who  says  that  two  plus  two  equals 
four;  but  on  the  man  who  denies  it.  The  man  who 
has  attempted  to  prove  that  two  plus  two  equals 
something  else  than  four,  and  has  failed  in  the 
attempt,  has  thereby  demonstrated  that  two  plus 
two  must  of  necessity  equal  four.  I  do  not  know 
why  it  is  so,  but  I  know  that  the  kind  of  universe 
we  are  now  living  in  is  so  constructed  that  it  is  so. 
The  manhood  principle  is  a  law  like  the  laws  of 
heat  and  light  and  electricity.  No  man  made  them 
and  no  man  can  unmake  them.  He  can  only  adjust 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  243 

himself  to  them  and  prosper,  or  he  can  mal-adjust 
himself  to  them,  and  take  responsibility  for  the 
results.  It  is  wiser,  also  safer,  frankly  to  acknowl- 
edge that  it  is  impossible  to  circumvent  God. 

I  said  just  now  that  I  am  announcing  this  law  of 
economics  as  a  discovery  which  any  man  may  make 
for  himself.  The  hopeful  thing  is  that  a  few  leaders 
of  industry,  perhaps  more  than  we  realize,  are 
beginning  to  make  it.  Thomas  E.  Mitten,  of  Phila- 
delphia, for  example,  has  made  it.  He  said  re- 
cently: "The  only  big  thing  I  did  was  to  make  a 
discovery — a  discovery  which  a  good  many  people 
have  made  before  me  but  which  has  not  generally 
been  applied  to  the  rapid  transit  game.  I  discov- 
ered that  10,000  men  could  do  much  more  than  a 
dozen,  especially  if  the  10,000  were  on  the  job  while 
the  dozen  were  not.  The  best  board  of  directors 
on  earth  cannot  run  a  railroad.  The  only  way  a 
railroad  can  be  run  is  through  co-operation." 

He  stated  the  same  discovery  in  the  form  of  three 
principles,  thus:  "First,  that  the  primary  purpose 
of  a  public  service  corporation  is  to  give  public  serv- 
ice, and  without  such  service  none  but  thieves  can 
benefit.  Second,  that  the  successful  running  of  a 
railroad  depends  most  upon  the  men  who  run  the 
railroad,  and  these  human  beings  are  of  more  im- 
portance than  dividends.  Third,  capital  cannot  get 
an  adequate  return  for  its  investment,  it  cannot,  in 
fact,  get  any  return  unless  these  principles  are 
observed.  Financiers  may  and  sometimes  do  get 


244    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

rich  by  other  methods,  just  as  burglars  may  run 
away  with  your  silverware,  but  what  they  get  in 
that  case  is  not  dividends  but  swag." 

It  ought  not  to  be  surprising;  it  ought  to  go  with- 
out saying  that  these  principles  produced  their  natu- 
ral and  logical  results.  When  Mr.  Mitten  became 
president  of  the  rapid  transit  company,  the  condi- 
tion of  things  he  found  as  stated  by  Charles  W. 
Wood,  was  as  follows:  "The  system  broken  down; 
the  cars  and  equipment  obsolete;  the  employees  sul- 
len and  discontented,  and  the  company's  credit  so 
exhausted  that  it  was  impossible  to  meet  a  raise  of 
one-half  cent  per  hour  which  had  been  agreed  upon 
in  the  settlement  of  a  violent  strike." 

After  operating  his  principles  a  few  years  the 
condition  of  things  today  is  as  follows:  "Transit 
service  was  doubled;  the  accident  list  was  cut  in  two; 
the  whole  system  was  re-equipped  with  cars;  divi- 
dends began  to  be  paid;  the  wages  of  employees 
jumped  from  23  cents  an  hour  to  72  (voluntarily 
reduced  last  year  to  64)  ;  and,  when  banking  in- 
terests which  had  once  brought  the  road  to  ruin 
called  a  halt,  men  and  management  dislodged  the 
bankers  from  the  board  of  directors,  elected  a 
board  composed  of  managers  and  employees  in- 
stead, and  now  guarantee  6  per  cent,  dividends  to 
stockholders  and  promise  a  10  per  cent,  salary 
dividend  to  all  employees." 

Is  it  not  significant  that  approaching  the  labor 
problem  from  the  standpoint  of  history  and  a 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  245 

knowledge  of  human  nature  and  the  impartial  ex- 
perience of  a  social  engineer  as  I  have  done,  and 
that  Mr.  Mitten  approaching  it  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  internal  operating  necessities  of  a  big 
industry,  should  both  have  arrived  at  exactly  the 
same  conclusions?  The  significance  lies  in  the  fact 
that  these  conclusions  issue  from  principles  that  are 
self-evident  truths,  obvious  to  all  who  want  to  see. 
They  require  no  proof.  No  amount  of  practical 
business  experience  would  have  enabled  Mr.  Mitten 
to  produce  the  remarkable  results  he  has  achieved. 
His  predecessors  had  abundant  business  experience. 
Mr.  Mitten's  achievement  is  the  result  of  his  dis- 
covery. This  discovery  is  the  load-star  of  modern 
industry.  And  when  a  considerable  number  of  in- 
dustrial leaders  make  the  same  discovery,  the  labor 
question  will  cease  to  be  a  problem  and  become  an 
opportunity,  as  it  has  to  Mr.  Mitten.  To  him  his 
business  is  his  chief  recreation. 

What  I  am  seeking  to  make  clear  is  that  our 
immediate  major  concern  is  not  to  continue  making 
surveys  of  the  industrial  war,  but  to  begin  making 
searches  for  a  way  to  terminate  it.  We  have  had 
surveys  enough,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
them.  We've  been  surveyed  and  re-surveyed;  what 
we  now  need  is  suggested  remedies.  The  time  has 
come  to  adopt  the  slogan,  "Don't  count  the  enemy; 
beat  him."  Suggested  remedies  would  have  real 
news  value.  We  have  had  front  page  reports  on 
the  industrial  war  with  reiterated  monotony.  But 


246    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

some  ideas  on  the  way  out  of  the  industrial  disorder 
would  be  a  new  kind  of  news — fresh  news,  good 
news,  constructive  news. 

All  discussions  and  activities  in  this  field  can  be 
grouped  under  three  descriptive  captions,  things  as 
they  are ;  things  as  they  ought  to  be ;  how  to  change 
things  as  they  are  into  things  as  they  ought  to  be. 
Under  the  first,  we  get  reports  of  conflicts,  strikes, 
disorders;  under  the  second,  Utopian  dreams.  You 
can  secure  front  page  space  for  the  first  type  of 
story,  and  even  for  the  second  type  of  story,  if  it 
is  fantastic  enough,  but  especially  for  the  first.  A 
young  modern  reporter  was  once  asked,  "If  you 
were  given  two  assignments  for  a  news  story,  one 
to  Hell  and  one  to  Heaven,  and  if  you  wanted 
to  make  sure  that  your  story  would  be  accepted, 
which  one  would  you  take?'*  He  answered,  "I 
would  take  the  assignment  to  Hell.  Heaven  has 
no  news  value,  but  Hell  is  full  of  it."  He  knew  the 
kind  of  wares  his  market  wanted. 

It  is  this  kind  of  news  with  which  we  have  been 
chiefly  concerning  ourselves.  But  we  have  had 
enough  news  from  Hell.  What  we  need  is  some 
news  about  a  way  of  escape  from  it.  That  would 
be  news  with  some  point  to  it  and  a  touch  of  fresh- 
ness on  it.  Anyone  can  see  things  as  they  are,  and 
anyone  can  dream  about  things  as  they  ought  to 
be,  but  how  to  change  them  is  the  difficult  and  con- 
structive job.  News  about  that  is  what  ought  to 
concern  us  now.  The  manhood  principle,  as  the 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  247 

new  policy  for  the  reorganization  of  industry,  is 
here  offered  as  having  this  new  type  of  news  value. 
Bold  and  clear  thinking  on  this  task  is  our  present 
national  need.  To  search  for  this  kind  of  news  and 
debate  it  is  the  challenge,  which  our  need  makes  to 
newspapers,  magazines,  and  public  forums.  When 
Socrates  was  asked:  "How  do  you  get  to  Mount 
Olympus,"  he  answered,  "By  doing  all  your  walk- 
ing in  that  direction."  The  time  has  come  to  turn 
our  faces  away  from  the  past  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  and  direct  our  thinking  towards  tomorrow 
in  a  search  for  the  way  out  of  things  as  they  are. 

To  indicate  how  feasible  is  the  application  of  the 
new  policy,  when  once  its  main  principle  is  discov- 
ered and  accepted,  whatever  the  skill  and  patience 
required  for  its  execution,  I  will  describe  its  appli- 
cation to  a  sugar  plantation,  because  the  conditions 
are  primitive,  and  exhibit  its  elements  in  bold  relief. 
On  a  recent  visit  to  the  Pan-Pacific  Educational  Con- 
ference at  Honolulu,  I  was  invited  to  do  some  social 
engineering  work  in  the  islands.  Among  other 
things,  I  was  asked  to  examine  and  make  suggestions 
on  the  welfare  work  in  a  certain  sugar  plantation. 
I  suppress  its  name  out  of  courtesy,  because  my 
recommendations  are  now  before  its  board  of  di- 
rectors. 

On  this  plantation  there  are  four  large  and  ex- 
pensive types  of  welfare  work  in  operation,  for  it 
covers  twelve  thousand  acres  and  involves  seven 
thousand  persons.  With  the  leader  of  one  of  these 


248     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

enterprises  as  a  guide,  I  examined  them  all.  With 
the  plantation's  manager,  I  visited  the  large  sugar 
mill  and  a  few  of  the  forty  camps  on  the  place. 
Then  to  lunch  at  the  palatial  residence  of  the  man- 
ager in  the  center  of  the  plantation.  During  the 
luncheon,  he  requested  me  to  state  my  conclusions 
about  the  welfare  work.  I  answered  that  so  far 
as  it  goes,  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  very  good.  This 
woman  in  charge  of  one  piece  of  it,  is  doing  the 
•best  she  can.  I  made  to  her  four  suggested  improve- 
ments, but  they  were  only  improvements  in  details. 
I  rejoice  over  every  good  effort  being  made,  and  I 
think  I  better  not  go  further  than  that  today.  "Oh, 
yes,  you  will,"  he  said,  uwe  are  not  entirely  satisfied 
with  our  work,  and  we  want  your  honest  criticism; 
also  your  suggestions  for  improvement.'* 

I  never  saw  a  finer  exhibition  of  the  fact  that  the 
nature  of  all  welfare  work  is  determined  by  eco- 
nomic conditions.  Community  workers  are  com- 
pelled to  deal  with  industrial  problems,  whether 
they  wish  to  or  not,  unless  they  are  content  that 
their  work  shrivel  up  into  mere  "uplift"  work,  and 
cease  to  have  any  constructive  value.  At  that  time 
in  Hawaii,  a  strenuous  effort  was  being  made  to 
influence  congress  to  permit  the  importation  of 
cheap  Chinese  contract  laborers,  and  the  propa- 
ganda in  its  behalf  was  of  such  a  kind,  that  it  was 
quite  dangerous  for  anyone  to  express  an  opinion, 
if  it  did  not  harmonize  with  that  of  the  financial 
masters  of  the  islands.  In  fact,  everyone  either 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  249 

expressed  agreement  or  kept  quiet.  I  did  not  hesi- 
tate on  this  account,  because  long  ago  I  adopted  the 
policy  that  I  would  "never  sell  the  truth  to  serve 
the  hour,"  but  I  wanted  to  test  the  manager. 

After  he  requested  my  honest  criticism,  I  asked, 
uAre  you  a  man  of  courage?"  He  said,  "I  am." 
Desiring  confirmation  from  headquarters,  I  asked 
his  wife:  "Is  he  telling  me  the  truth?"  She  said, 
"He  is."  "Very  well,  then,"  I  said,  "I  will  tell 
you.  Your  welfare  work  cannot  be  better  than  it 
is,  because  your  industrial  policy  is  what  it  is.  Your 
entire  policy  is  wrong,  and  not  only  wrong,  but 
stupidly  wrong."  "That  sounds  refreshing,"  he 
said.  "I  realize,"  I  answered,  "that  the  word 
'stupidity'  has  a  harsh  sound,  but  it  is  the  only  word 
that  fits.  What  impresses  me  most  about  you  own- 
ers and  managers,  is  not  what  you  are  suffering,  but 
what  you  are  losing.  You  are  spending  large  sums 
as  you  told  me,  on  motion  pictures.  Most  of  the 
people  do  not  attend;  those  who  do  attend  think 
you  are  trying  to  put  something  over  on  them.  This 
is  true  of  all  your  uplift  work.  It  is  wasted  effort 
for  the  most  part.  It  is  very  good  of  its  type,  but 
the  type  is  wrong.  It  fails  to  do  what  it  is  designed 
to  do.  You  need  five  hundred  more  men  and  can't 
get  them.  There's  a  reason  why  you  can't,  and  it 
is  a  removable  cause.  Then  there  is  a  continuous 
silent  strike  in  progress.  This  gives  you  not  more 
than  fifty  per  cent,  production.  This  is  your  big 
loss.  When  you  are  needlessly  wasting  money  and 


250    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

losing  money,   please   suggest   an   adjective,   which 
describes  your  policy,  if  'stupid'   seems  unfair." 

uDo  you  mean  to  suggest,"  he  said,  "that  we 
ought  to  install  an  entirely  new  policy?"  "I  cer- 
tainly do,"  I  answered.  "You  owners  and  managers 
are  most  courteous  and  attractive  people,  but  your 
industrial  policy  is  nothing  but  feudalism.  It  is  un- 
American  and  economically  unsound."  "Could  you 
give  me,"  he  asked,  "a  bill  of  particulars  for  your 
suggested  new  policy?"  "Certainly,"  I  said.  I  had 
never  seen  a  sugar  plantation  before,  but  the  defects 
in  the  policy  in  operation  were  so  obvious,  that  a 
blind  man  could  see  them,  and  the  changes  required 
by  the  manhood  policy  could  have  been  suggested 
by  anyone,  who  had  discovered  the  principle  of  it. 
The  manager  is  an  honest  and  open-minded  man. 
After  going  thoroughly  over  the  new  policy  with 
him,  he  asked  me  to  reduce  it  to  writing,  so  that  he 
could  submit  it  to  his  directors.  It  is  as  follows, 
and  it  illustrates  a  few  of  the  obvious  items  in  the 
operation  of  the 

MANHOOD    PRINCIPLE   APPLIED   TO   A 
PLANTATION 

Causes  of  Trouble 

1.  Within  the  limits  of  the  policy  now  in  operation  much 
good  work  is  being  done,  which  I  gladly  recognize  and  re- 
joice over.     But  the  policy  is  fundamentally  wrong. 

2.  Most  of   the   money  now   spent   in   welfare  work   is 
wasted  because  it  does  not  accomplish  the  object  aimed  at. 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  251 

3.  Much  money  is  also  lost  because  you  are  getting  only 
about  fifty  per  cent.,  certainly  not  more  than  seventy-five 
per  cent.,  of  the  production  you  ought  to  get,  could  get,  and 
are  entitled  to  get.    A  silent  strike  is  more  or  less  in  progress 
all  the  time. 

4.  There  is  a  wall  of  suspicion  between  management  and 
men.     The  connection  between  the  laborer's  hand  and  his 
brain  and  heart  has  been  broken.     You  are  working  with 
pieces  of  men. 

5.  The   men   are  treated   as   cogs   in   a  wheel,   with   no 
chance  to  play  the  part  of  men  in  their  work.    They  are  no 
longer  content  to  have  merely  a  wage  relation  to  the  plan- 
tation. 

6.  Labor  is  degraded  by  being  treated  as  unskilled.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  unskilled  labor,  for  there  is  no  kind  of 
work  which  could  not  be  made  more  productive  and  enjoy- 
able by  devising  better  ways  of  doing  it. 

7.  Your  system  is  feudalism  and  is  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  behind  the  times.    Democracy  has  been  introduced  into 
government,   but   not   yet   into   industry.     The   trouble   is, 
therefore,  much  deeper  than  a  question  of  wages.     It  is  a 
question  of  human  welfare. 

The  Way  Out 

1.  If  the  above  is  a  correct  diagnosis  of  the  trouble,  the 
remedy  is  quite  obvious.     It  is  to  remove  the  cause.     You 
need  not  so  much  the  importation  of  more  cheap  laborers, 
but  the  importation  of  a  new  policy.     More  cheap  labor  is 
no  solution,  but  an  aggravation.     Cheap  Chinese  labor  may 
bring  you  some  relief  tomorrow,  but  the  day  after  tomorrow 
your  condition  will  be  the  same,  and  probably  worse.     If 
you  do  get  more  cheap  labor,  you  will  need  the  new  policy 
more  than  before. 

2.  This  means  a  dividend  on  wages  just  as  you  have  a 


252    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

dividend  on  capital.  Your  two  essential  items  in  the  busi- 
ness are  capital  and  labor.  Fix  a  basic  and  just  return  on 
both ;  in  one  case  it  is  a  dividend,  in  the  other  it  is  a  wage. 
Regard  both  as  operating  expense  with  the  other  expenses. 
Anything  made  beyond  this  is  profit.  It  should  be  distrib- 
uted proportionately  between  capital  and  wages. 

3.  Such  distribution  of  profits  is  not  only  just,  but  will 
make  more  money  for  the  management  and  men.     It  will 
have  a  marked  influence  on  the  attitude  of  the  men  towards 
their  work,  and  on  their  efficiency  in  it.     Naturally  they 
will  work  harder  and   prevent  waste,   because   it  will   in- 
crease the  profits,  in  which  they  will  then  have  a  share. 

4.  There  ought  to  be  a  series  of  regular  conferences  be- 
tween management  and  men  for  council  and  discussion.  This 
will  not  only  create  a  good  morale  by  improving  the  men's 
self-respect,   but  will   call   forth   many  suggestions   for  im- 
provement in  methods  of  work. 

5.  The  forty  camps  on  the  plantation  should  be  concen- 
trated into  ten,  in  order  to  make  units  big  enough  to  be 
operated  advantageously. 

6.  The  men  should  own  their  houses  and  pay  for  them. 
This  will  give  them  one  spot,  at  least,  where  they  could 
have  freedom  for  initiative  and  self-expression,  working  at 
their  houses  and  gardens,  planting  a  tree  and  playing  with 
flowers. 

7.  Organize  and  operate  a  house-owning  plan,  by  which 
you  build  and  sell  houses  or  by  which  the  man  builds  and 
owns  his  own  house.     If  he  leaves,  he  can  sell  the  house 
back  to  you,  and  you  can  re-sell  it  to  another. 

8.  The  term  "camp"  should  be  changed  to  "village."     In 
each  village  there  should  be  a  schoolhouse,  built  by  public 
money.     The  land  for  it  would  have  to  be  owned  by  the 
territory.     It  should  be  a  community  type  of  schoolhouse,  in 
order  to  be  available  as  a  center  of  social  activities  for  all 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  253 

adults  and  youths.    You  may  have  to  supplement  the  public 
funds  by  a  small  amount  to  get  this  type  of  building. 

9.  This  will  give  you  ten  school  teachers,  supported  at 
public  expense,  who  could,  at  the  same  time,  be  directors  of 
social  activities,  for  which  the  people  themselves  would  take 
responsibility. 

10.  You  could  thus  dispense  with  all  your  uplift  work 
now  in  operation.    The  time  for  this  type  of  work  has  gone 
by.    It  is  morally  hurtful  to  the  men,  as  well  as  futile.    You 
will  need  only  one  good  man  to  direct  the  work  of  the  ten 
teachers. 

11.  The  above  items  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  new 
policy  would  save  much  money.     It  would  greatly  increase 
production,  which  is  the  big  item  of  saving.     In  addition,  it 
would  save  most  of  the  money  you   now  spend   in   uplift 
work.     Moreover,  your  directors  would  no  longer  feel  the 
need  of  giving  "conscience  money"  to  charity,  because  there 
would  be  little  or  no  need  for  charity.    The  suggested  new 
policy  operates  on  the  principle  of  self-help. 

12.  The  policy  here  suggested  considers  equally  the  benefit 
both  to  management  and  men,  which  are  like  two  sides  of 
one   and    the   same   shield   and    must    be   treated    together; 
neither  one  can  prosper  alone.     What  is  not  good  for  the 
hive  is  not  good  for  the  bee. 

How  to  Start 

1.  The   right   and   wise   thing   to   be   done   seems    clear 
enough;  how  to  do  it  is  the  difficulty.     But  it  can  be  done, 
because  it  has  been.     It  is  now  operated  in  many  places 
with  marked  success. 

2.  The  new  policy  is  not  a  mechanical  device,  but  a  human 
activity.     Therefore,  it  has  to  be  installed  slowly  and  pa- 
tiently.    Each  item  of  the  program  has  to  be  first  consid- 


254    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

ered  carefully  by  the  directors  until  they  understand  and 
heartily  approve.  The  same  process  has  to  be  used  with  the 
men.  It  would  perhaps  take  three  months  to  start  it. 

3.  To  install  the  new  policy  you  need  a  social  engineer 
from  outside,  who  makes  a  special  business  of  this  work.     I 
am  not  certain  that  I  can  spare  the  time  to  install  it  for 
you,   as  you  kindly  suggested  you  might  want  me  to  do, 
although  I  would  be  glad  to  do  it,  because  this  is  a  depart* 
ment  of  our  National  Community  Board's  wrork,  and  the 
one  in  which  I  am  most  interested.     But  whether  or  not  I 
shall  be  able  to  leave  my  other  duties,  I  shall  gladly  give 
you  all  the  help  I  can. 

4.  Your  labor  problem  at  bottom  is  essentially  the  same 
as  it  is  in  Europe  and  Continental  America,  differing  only 
in  detail.     The  unrest  is  due  to  the  awakened   and   deep 
desire  of  men  to  be  treated  like  men  and  to  play  a  part  in 
their  own  work.     It  is  as  useless  to  fight  it  as  to  fight  the 
law  of  gravitation.     Moreover,  we  ought  to  rejoice  in  it, 
because  we  can  capitalize  it  and  use  it  to  yield  big  dividends 
in  money  and  happiness,   both   for  management   and   men. 
If  you  will  adopt  the  policy  here  proposed,  you  need  not 
waste  any  more  money  in  trying  to  secure  favors  from  the 
Congress  at  Washington.    The  key  to  the  solution  of  your 
problem  is  in  your  own  hands. 

It  will  be  observed  that  every  item  in  this  sug- 
gested program  is  a  simple  and  logical  consequence 
of  the  central  principle,  on  which  the  program  is 
built.  A  program  like  this  cannot  be  adopted,  nor 
successfully  operated,  if  adopted,  until  the  manhood 
principle  is  discovered  and  understood.  This  is  to 
say  that  the  issue  before  modern  industry  is  a  clean 
cut  issue  between  the  manhood  principle  and  the 


A  BILL  OF  PARTICULARS  255 

commodity  principle.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
mechanics,  but  of  morals;  a  question  of  making  our 
policy  fit  the  facts  of  human  nature.  It  is  not  a 
question  of  altruism,  but  of  the  scientific  treatment 
of  facts.  Robert  Briffault  speaks  sober  sense  when 
he  says :  "The  necessity  of  ethical  considerations 
is  no  other  than  the  hard  necessity  of  adaptation 
of  facts  as  they  are.  There  are  in  the  relations 
between  man  and  man  conditions  which  are,  and 
others  which  are  not  adapted  to  actual  facts.  The 
unadapted  result  in  failure,  the  adapted  in  evolu- 
tionary growth  and  life."  Not  until  the  commodity 
principle  is  once  for  all  discarded  and  the  manhood 
principle  freely  accepted,  will  our  industrial  policy 
be  in  accord  with  the  facts,  on  which  the  universe 
is  constructed.  When  this  occurs,  we  may  hope  for 
an  end  of  industrial  war,  and  the  beginning  of  a 
new  industrial  order. 


CHAPTER    IX 

NEW   INDUSTRIAL   AMERICA 

A  LMOST  every  nation  at  its  birth  consciously 
-*•**  or  unconsciously  has  adopted  some  big  for- 
mative principle  which  shaped  its  organization, 
influenced  the  nature  of  its  various  activities  and 
determined  the  worth  of  its  contribution  to  prog- 
ress. In  Palestine  it  was  religion;  in  Greece  it  was 
culture;  in  Rome  it  was  law;  in  America  it  is  what? 

Fortunately  the  answer  to  this  question  is  in  no 
doubt.  The  origin  of  other  nations  lie  hidden  in 
the  mists  of  a  dim  and  distant  past  clouded  by 
mythical  traditions.  The  story  of  ours  is  distin- 
guished by  this  significant  circumstance,  that  it  lies 
wholly  in  the  field  of  modern  history,  with  all  the 
facts  exposed  to  view  and  with  a  clearly  defined 
purpose.  Its  formative  and  creative  purpose  is  the 
enfranchisement  of  manhood,  the  development  of 
the  individual,  making  available  for  the  many  what 
once  was  confined  to  the  few,  lifting  artificial  bur- 
dens from  all  shoulders,  giving  to  each  a  fair  chance 
in  the  race  of  life. 

The  United  States  opened  a  new  road  to  political 
freedom  and  started  an  experiment  in  democracy  of 
vast  consequence  to  the  welfare  of  mankind.  Our 

256 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  257 

present  difficult  task  is  to  keep  the  road  open,  but 
we  must  do  more.  We  have  discovered  that  we 
must  secure  industrial  freedom,  if  we  would  preserve 
our  political  freedom.  We  must  re-establish  indus- 
trial democracy,  not  only  for  its  own  sake,  but  to 
save  our  political  democracy  from  wreckage.  Our 
unfinished  business  is  to  create  a  new  industrial 
America.  The  challenge  of  this  unfinished  task  was 
recently  presented  to  America  by  a  well-known  in- 
dustrial leader  from  Europe.  Mr.  B.  Seebohm 
Rowntree  is  one  of  the  most  successful  and  liberal- 
minded  manufacturers  of  England.  He  is  an  indus- 
trial statesman.  On  his  recent  tour  of  the  United 
States  to  inspect  our  industrial  development,  he  was 
courteous  enough  to  say  that  he  had  received  some 
helpful  suggestions;  he  was  also  courteous  enough 
not  to  say  in  which  respects  England  was  more  pro- 
gressive than  we  are,  although  it  was  obvious  that 
he  could  have  named  them. 

There  was  one  statement  made  to  him  before 
sailing  for  home,  which  impressed  him  more  than 
everything  else  he  heard  or  saw  on  his  visit,  and  it 
opened  up  for  him  the  vision  of  a  constructive  pol- 
icy in  advance  of  any  of  the  reforms  he  had  already 
established  in  his  own  factory.  It  was  a  statement 
by  Robert  B.  Wolf,  a  pioneer  of  the  new  social 
engineering  type.  It  is  as  follows:  uLet  the  worker 
participate  in  the  financial  rewards  of  industry,  and 
he  may  have  his  sense  of  justice  satisfied;  let  him 
be  insured  against  sickness,  unemployment  and  old 


258    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

age  and  he  may  develop  contentment  of  a  sort;  but 
only  when  the  industrial  processes  are  organized 
so  that  every  worker  becomes  a  conscious  creator, 
so  that  his  creative  powers  are  released  and  he 
forgets  all  other  considerations  in  the  joy  of  the 
job,  will  the  true  greatness  of  our  industrial  system 
be  understood."  "That  to  me,"  said  Mr.  Rown- 
tree,  uis  the  most  inspiring  word  I  heard  in  America. 
I  believe  it  is  the  message  of  New  America  to  the 
world.  It  is  a  message  I  want  to  carry  back  to 
England — and  I  hope  to  induce  Mr.  Wolf  to  bring 
it  personally."  Mr.  Wolfs  statement  is  the  accu- 
rate expression  of  the  manhood  principle,  which  is 
the  one  idea  this  book  is  written  to  make  clear.  Mr. 
Rowntree  is  quite  right  in  supposing  that  on  the 
basis  of  this  single  principle  the  New  Industrial 
America  will  be  built.  Nothing  less  fundamental 
is  able  to  bring  it  to  pass. 

The  nature  of  the  opportunity  which  America 
missed  and  must  now  recover  by  creating  a  demo- 
cratic industrial  order,  is  picturesquely  set  forth  in 
a  little  drama  by  Rauschenbusch,  laid  in  the  council 
chamber  in  heaven,  when  it  was  announced  that  Co- 
lumbus had  discovered  America.  It  is  as  follows: 

uln  one  of  the  azure  halls  of  heaven  is  the  coun- 
cil chamber  in  which  the  Senate  of  the  Immortals 
meets.  Only  the  wisest  of  all  ages  have  a  seat  there : 
Moses  and  Isaiah,  Solon  and  Aristotle,  King  Arthur, 
Dante  and  their  spiritual  peers.  Equipped  with 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  259 

the  experience  of  their  own  nations,  enriched  by 
communion  with  men  of  all  times,  unbiased  by  self- 
ish passions,  uninfluenced  by  party  interests,  they 
sit  to  consider  the  course  of  human  events. 

uTo  them  entered  one  day  that  vivacious  and 
versatile  Personality  who  once  came  with  the  Sons 
of  God  and  discussed  the  case  of  Job  with  Jehovah. 
He  had  again  come  'from  going  to  and  fro  in  the 
earth,  and  from  walking  up  and  down  in  it,'  and  he 
now  reported  that  Columbus  had  just  discovered 
America. 

"Immediately  there  rose  before  the  prophetic 
minds  of  the  great  Immortals  the  sight  of  broaden- 
ing streams  of  human  life  pouring  from  the  old 
world  into  the  new,  of  communities  colonizing  the 
seaboard,  pushing  up  the  river  valleys,  clustering 
around  the  waterfalls,  dotting  the  plains  with  homes, 
and  building  up  commonwealths  and  nations.  A 
great  hope  swept  audibly  through  the  Senate  like 
the  rushing  of  a  mighty  wind.  In  that  new  conti- 
nent the  best  in  humanity  would  find  a  free  course ; 
no  inherited  tyrannies  seeking  to  perpetuate  them- 
selves, no  embittering  memories  of  bloody  wars,  no 
classes  and  castes  cemented  with  injustice  to  baffle 
brotherhood  and  defy  the  liberty  of  States.  Swiftly 
they  began  to  plan  a  great  Charter  of  Rights  and 
Liberties  that  would  forever  bar  out  from  the  new 
land  the  forces,  which  had  ruined  the  other  peoples. 

"Satan  listened  with  an  amiable  smile.  'Excuse 
me,  gentlemen,  but  let  us  get  down  to  common  sense. 


260    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

We've  got  this  all  fixed.  You  forget  that  the  people 
who  occupy  this  country  will  need  labor  force. 
We'll  let  them  use  up  the  Indians,  provided  they 
can  make  'em  work.  After  that  we'll  tap  the  reserve 
force  of  Africa  and  put  the  black  race  at  their  serv- 
ice. You  know  that  the  venerable  institution  of 
slavery  has  been  indispensable  in  the  advancement 
of  civilization.  By  restricting  it  to  the  colored  races, 
we  shall  save  the  whites  from  the  slight  hardships 
which  naturally  accompany  it.'  (The  Senate  moved 
uneasily.)  'Then  we've  got  to  offer  incentives  to 
thrift  and  enterprise.  We're  going  to  introduce  the 
system  of  private  property  in  land  which  worked 
such  remarkable  results  in  the  Roman  Empire.' 
(A  shudder  ran  through  the  assembly.)  'Those 
who  first  seize  an  opportunity  can  keep  it  and  work 
it.  That  will  promote  industry  and  progress.' 

"  'But  the  land  must  not  be  sold  in  perpetuity,' 
broke  in  the  venerable  figure  of  Moses.  'Jehovah 
forbade  it.  All  must  have  a  share  in  God's  land. 
What  shall  they  do  who  come  after?' 

"  'They'll  have  to  make  the  best  terms  they  can 
with  the  fellows  on  the  inside.  Every  man  for  him- 
self, and  I'm  always  ready  to  take  the  hindermost, 
you  know,'  and  he  winked  at  King  Arthur,  who 
gripped  his  staff  with  brawny  fist,  as  if  he  would 
right  willingly  use  it. 

"  'As  the  population  increases,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary for  the  sake  of  efficiency  to  consolidate  the 
resources  of  the  nation.  The  ablest  men  will  come 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  261 

to  hold  all  the  important  property  rights  and  the 
lines  of  traffic.  In  four  hundred  years,  say  about 
1<$92,  they  ought  to  have  a  pretty  solid  system. 
They  can  fix  prices  as  they  need  them,  and  in  that 
way  they  will  have  ample  funds  to  finance  the  de- 
velopment of  mankind  and  put  society  on  a  stable 
basis.' 

;  'Woe  unto  them  that  join  house  to  house,  that 
lay  field  to  field,'  exclaimed  Isaiah,  lifting  his  hands. 
'What  mean  ye,  that  ye  crush  my  people  and  grind 
the  face  of  the  poor?' 

"  'This  is  death  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,' 
cried  Aristotle.  'This  is  the  very  calamity  from 
which  every  patriot  of  Greece  sought  to  save  his 
commonwealth.  It  was  in  vain.  Greece  became  a 
desert.'  Solon  covered  his  face. 

"They  sat  in  silence,  and  darkness  seemed  to 
shroud  the  chamber.  One  of  the  attendant  angels 
was  reminded  of  the  gloom  that  settled  over  heaven, 
when  word  was  brought  of  the  fall  of  man.  Even 
from  the  lips  of  Satan  the  smile  vanished,  and  he 
passed  out." 

Would  not  a  new  industrial  America,  built  in 
accordance  with  her  original  purpose,  mean  a  rever- 
sal of  the  standards,  which,  as  this  drama  suggests, 
have  been  old  and  customary  rules  of  conduct  in 
industry?  It  would.  But  how  could  the  reversal 
of  these  standards  be  affected  without  a  revolution? 
It  could  not.  But  it  would  be  a  revolution  of  a  new 
sort,  a  revolution  by  consent.  America  established 


262    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

the  beginning  of  her  experiment  in  political  democ- 
racy by  a  revolutionary  war,  the  use  of  physical 
force.  The  new  industrial  America  likewise,  can- 
not be  established  without  a  revolution,  but  it  will 
use  no  physical  force  of  any  kind.  It  will  be  a 
mental  revolution,  a  "reasonable"  revolution. 

The  industrial  revolution  with  its  application  of 
steam  to  machinery,  and  capitalism  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  industry  has  been  called  "the  revolution  of 
the  rich  against  the  poor."  It  was  natural  enough 
that  the  poor  should  conduct  a  counter-revolution 
against  the  rich.  For  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
each  class  has  been  operating  a  revolution  of  its 
own,  and  conducting  an  organized  war  against  the 
other.  If  the  structure  of  modern  industry,  over 
which  they  fight,  is  not  to  be  destroyed,  the  time  has 
come  for  a  new  kind  of  revolution  in  which  both 
classes  shall  be  allies,  instead  of  rivals.  Community 
labor  boards  will  be  the  agencies  and  centers  of  the 
new  revolution.  It  will  start,  indeed  has  already 
started,  by  the  peaceful  but  powerful  pressure  of 
public  opinion,  compelling  both  antagonists  to  con- 
sider their  conflict  in  the  light  of  their  mutual  obli- 
gation to  the  community's  interest  instead  of  their 
own.  The  initiative  in  the  revolution  for  the  most 
part  should  be  taken  by  capitalists  on  the  principle 
of  noblesse  oblige,  and  for  the  further  reason,  stated 
by  Lincoln  in  his  first  message  to  Congress:  "Labor 
is  prior  to  and  independent  of  capital.  Capital  is 
only  the  fruit  of  labor  and  could  never  have  existed 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  263 

if  labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the  superior 
of  capital  and  deserves  much  the  higher  considera- 
tion." 

To  secure  the  consideration  of  industrial  disputes 
in  the  light  of  their  relation  to  the  public  welfare 
instantly  transforms  them  into  very  different  types 
of  problems  and  opens  the  only  clear  road  to  their 
possible  solution  on  a  sound  basis.  But  this  is  only 
a  beginning.  If  the  revolution  is  to  produce  per- 
manent results  and  issue  in  a  new  industrial  America, 
it  will  have  to  be  achieved  by  the  free  acceptance 
of  a  new  transforming  idea,  which,  so  far  as  history 
has  yet  revealed,  is  the  only  force  equal  to  the  task. 
This  transforming  idea  is  the  voluntary  organiza- 
tion and  operation  of  industry  on  the  basis  of  a 
bill  of  duties  instead  of  a  bill  of  rights.  This  is  a 
mental  and  spiritual  process.  But  does  not  this  take 
us  into  the  field  of  ethics?  Certainly.  This  is  what 
the  labor  problem  is  about.  It  seems  preposterous 
that  we  should  permit  a  destructive  industrial  war 
to  continue  without  making  a  serious  attempt  to 
discover  exactly  what  its  cause  is.  There  is  no  hope 
of  discovering  its  cause  unless  we  see  clearly  that 
the  question  at  issue  is  not  mechanical,  and  not 
financial,  but  ethical.  It  lies  in  the  defective  ethical 
relationship  between  owners  and  workmen.  It  is 
quite  understandable  by  any  average  high  school 
boy. 

"There  is,"  said  Carlyle,  "but  one  class  of  men 
to  be  trembled  at,  and  that  is  the  stupid  class,  the 


264    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

class  that  cannot  see,  who,  alas,  are  they  mainly 
that  will  not  see."  Let  no  one  be  deceived  by  the 
detailed  complexities  of  modern  business.  These 
complexities  are  frequently  used  by  a  certain  class 
of  men  as  a  smoke  screen  to  obscure  the  central 
moral  issue.  Many  of  them  may  be  honestly  self- 
deceived,  by  absorption  in  details,  as  to  what  the 
real  issue  is.  It  is  a  commonplace  for  them  to  attack 
social  philosophers  with  the  remark,  "You  do  not 
understand;  modern  industry  is  too  complicated  for 
you."  Whereas  the  social  philosopher  is  the  only 
man  who  does  understand  it.  With  the  so-called 
"practical"  business  men  like  the  ex-German  Kaiser, 
an  understanding  of  modern  industry  glares  by  its 
absence,  and  this  defect  is  tragic  and  costly  for  the 
rest  of  us.  One  of  the  greatest  of  social  philoso- 
phers, M.  Bergson,  stated  the  heart  of  the  problem 
when  he  said: 

"Many  years  hence,  when  the  reaction  of  the 
past  shall  have  left  only  the  grand  outlines  in  view, 
this,  perhaps,  is  how  a  philosopher  will  speak  of 
our  age.  He  will  say  that  the  idea,  peculiar  to  the 
nineteenth  century,  of  employing  science  in  the  satis- 
faction of  our  material  wants  had  given  a  wholly 
unforeseen  extension  to  the  mechanical  arts,  and 
equipped  man,  in  less  than  fifty  years,  with  more 
tools  than  he  had  made  during  the  thousands  of 
years  he  had  lived  upon  earth.  Each  new  machine 
being  for  man  a  new  organ, — an  artificial  organ, — 
his  body  became  suddenly  and  prodigiously  increased 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  265 

in  size,  without  his  soul  being  at  the  same  time  able 
to  dilate  to  the  dimensions  of  his  new  body." 

The  problem  could  not  be  other  than  an  ethical 
one,  because  it  mainly  concerns  humans.  This  is 
where  the  argument  has  led  us  by  a  straight  course, 
and  we  ought  to  have  the  courage  to  follow  wher- 
ever the  argument  leads  us.  You  may  make  any 
legitimate  use  you  please  of  the  nation's  forces  in 
times  of  emergency  to  prevent  public  disaster.  But 
law  and  guns  only  prevent  and  destroy.  They  are 
weakness  and  futility  compared  to  an  ethical  motive, 
and  they  touch  only  the  fringe  of  our  problem.  We 
are  searching  for  some  power,  not  to  prevent  men 
from  doing  wrong  but  to  stimulate  them  to  do  right. 
There  is  nothing  that  will  set  a  man  going  from 
within  so  that  he  will  run  himself,  and  do  the 
right  thing,  except  a  living  sense  of  duty. 

Workmen  are  organized  for  the  express  purpose 
of  securing  and  defending  their  rights.  Capitalists 
are  organized  for  the  express  purpose  of  securing 
and  defending  their  rights.  It  is  a  foregone  conclu- 
sion that  on  due  occasion  they  both  will  fight  for 
their  rights,  and  this  is  what  in  fact  they  do.  When 
we  are  thus  deliberately  organized  for  industrial 
warfare,  what  else  can  we  expect  but  warfare? 
There  is  no  hope  for  its  termination  until  the  doc- 
trine of  rights  is  replaced  by  the  doctrine  of  duties 
as  the  first  law  of  social  conduct.  The  reason  why 
Robinson  Crusoe  had  no  labor  troubles  after  Friday 
came,  was  because  his  attitude  towards  him  was 


266    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

determined  by  the  theory  of  duties;  the  sense  of 
responsibility  for  his  personal  development. 

This  law  is  not  intended  to  apply  to  one  class 
alone,  but  to  all  classes  alike.  It  is  not  offered  to 
workingmen  as  a  pious  camouflage  to  divert  their 
attention  from  their  primary  and  inalienable  rights, 
which  have  been  so  frequently  denied  them.  It  is 
this  hypocrisy,  which  has  brought  the  term  "duty" 
into  disrespect,  and  caused  the  theory  of  duties  to 
be  treated  as  the  antithesis  of  the  theory  of  rights, 
as  if  we  under-rated  the  importance  of  rights  and 
wanted  to  deny  them.  It  is  fitting  and  sometimes 
imperative  that  men  should  contend  for  their  rights. 
It  will  continue  to  be  necessary  so  long  as  society  is 
organized  on  its  present  low  levels.  What  we  seek 
is  to  change  the  level  in  order  to  obviate  the  neces- 
sity of  any  contention  for  one's  rights.  We  chal- 
lenge the  basis  of  social  organization,  which  is  both 
a  cause  and  consequence  of  the  theory  of  rights. 
The  theory  of  rights  is  a  space-binding  concept. 
The  theory  of  duties  is  a  time-binding  concept,  which 
alone  has  the  power  to  transform  the  basis  of  society 
and  lift  life  to  a  higher  level,  appropriate  for  men 
rather  than  animals. 

The  doctrine  of  duty  is  here  considered  as  a 
scientific  social  law.  My  contention  is  that  to  base 
our  social  conduct  on  the  rights  of  man  is  a  current 
political  fallacy,  that  all  rights  are  morally  condi- 
tioned on  duties  fulfilled,  that  to  make  duty  a  corol- 
lary to  primary  duty,  is  unethical  and  has  debased 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  267 

our  social  and  business  standards,  that  the  primacy 
should  be  given  to  duties  over  rights,  not  that  we 
should  think  less  of  rights,  but  more  of  duties.  My 
contention  also  is  that  to  give  primacy  to  duties  is 
the  only  effective  way  to  secure  one's  rights,  and 
that  if  this  primacy  is  not  only  approved  in  principle, 
but  observed  in  practice,  as  a  rule  of  conduct  for 
citizens,  so  that  they  will  first  of  all  seek  the  com- 
mon good  and  subordinate  private  to  public  interest, 
there  can  be  no  sure  guarantee  that  their  own  inter- 
ests will  be  safeguarded. 

I  realize  that  social  philosophy  has  not  yet  coined 
a  word  to  express  this  comprehensive  idea.  The 
absence  of  any  word  for  it,  and  the  misuse  of  the 
word  uduty,"  make  it  necessary  to  describe  the  idea 
itself,  and  since  the  idea  is  the  reversal  of  a  common 
political  fallacy,  which  for  so  long  has  been  current 
and  unquestioned,  it  is  the  more  necessary  that  it 
be  made  as  clear  as  may  be. 

The  doctrine  of  rights  was  the  supreme  formula 
of  the  French  Revolution.  The  convention  of  1787 
adopted  a  bill  of  rights.  When  a  group  of  men 
petitioned  it  to  adopt  also  a  bill  of  duties,  the  con- 
vention voted  it  down,  stating  as  the  reason  for  its 
action  that  a  bill  of  duties  was  a  matter  of  religion. 
It  was  quite  right  in  its  judgment;  quite  wrong  in 
its  action. 

The  doctrine  of  rights  is  an  effective  formula  on 
which  to  conduct  a  fight  against  the  tyranny  of  yes- 
terday; wholly  ineffective  as  an  aim  for  the  construe- 


268    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

tive  action  of  tomorrow.  But  ever  since  the  epoch, 
begun  with  the  American  and  French  Revolutions, 
it  has  ruled  us  with  sovereign  sway. 

On  the  basis  of  rights  we  have  won  some  liberty, 
but  we  have  failed  to  inquire  what  we  propose  to 
do  with  it.  Aimless  liberty  inevitably  leads  to  an- 
archy and  warfare.  When  men  stand  on  their 
rights  they  will  fight  to  secure  and  defend  them; 
so  will  nations.  Both  within  and  among  nations 
we  are  organized  for  warfare,  because  we  are  domi- 
nated by  the  formula  of  rights. 

All  courts  of  law  are  courts  of  rights.  Legisla- 
tive assemblies  frequently  have  passed  bills  of  rights. 
International  conferences  are  wholly  absorbed  in 
the  task  of  securing  and  protecting  national  rights. 
They  have  acted  on  this  principle  as  between  na- 
tions, because  the  citizens  of  these  nations  have 
acted  on  the  same  principle  as  among  each  other. 

The  community  movement  seeks  to  change  the 
basis  of  social  organization  and  civilization  by  sub- 
stituting a  bill  of  duties  for  a  bill  of  rights.  A 
community  center,  like  the  family,  is  an  institute 
of  duties,  not  an  institute  of  rights. 

The  most  effective  method  of  securing  one's  rights 
is  to  perform  one's  duties.  My  rights  are  what 
other  men  owe  me;  my  duties  are  what  I  owe  to 
them.  If,  then,  we  mutually  discharge  our  duties, 
we  automatically  secure  our  rights. 

The  only  effective  way  to  achieve  disarmament 
between  classes  or  nations  is  to  operate  on  the  doc- 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  269 

trine  of  duties.  How  can  we  expect  any  other  kind 
of  disarmament  until  we  first  disarm  the  mind? 
Is  there  any  other  way  to  disarm  the  mind  except 
to  substitute  duties  for  rights?  When  I  go  to 
another  man  to  render  him  a  service  I  do  not  need 
to  go  accompanied  by  gunboats  and  rifles.  They 
are  automatically  eliminated. 

Our  inveterate  inability  to  put  ourselves  by  an 
act  of  intelligent  sympathy  in  the  other  fellow's 
place,  is  due  to  the  exclusive  use  of  the  principle  of 
rights.  Only  when  you  put  yourself  in  his  place  is 
it  possible  to  do  him  justice  and  avoid  conflict.  As 
a  mere  matter  of  smartness  the  best  way  for  one 
man  to  outwit  another  is  to  do  him  a  service;  it  at 
once  puts  him  on  the  defensive.  The  same  is  true 
of  nations. 

This  policy  would  lead  a  class  or  nation  to  learn 
from  others;  not  impose  its  standards  on  them.  It 
would  disclose  the  surprising  amount  of  ignorance 
every  class  and  nation  has  accumulated  about  the 
others.  It  might  in  time  even  lead  us  to  conclude 
with  Mark  Twain,  that:  "The  older  we  grow  the 
more  we  are  astonished  to  notice  how  much  ignor- 
ance one  can  contain  without  bursting  one's  clothes." 

The  theory  of  rights  is  a  secondary  idea,  a  conse- 
quence of  something  else.  No  rights  exist  except  as 
they  are  based  on  their  corresponding  duties.  A 
right  is  the  consequence  of  a  duty  fulfilled.  It  is  not 
only  that  the  conduct  of  nations  and  classes  toward 
each  other  has  been  wrong.  The  disease  is  far 


270    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

deeper.  Their  ethical  standards  have  been  defec- 
tive. They  have  put  rights  in  the  first  place;  they 
belong  in  the  second. 

This  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world.  The 
persistence  of  armed  conflict  both  within  and  among 
nations,  is  not  a  puzzle,  but  a  natural  product.  The 
world  has  been  running  on  a  side  track  instead  of 
the  main  track.  In  every  program  of  international 
politics  and  of  industrial  politics  a  bill  of  duties 
glares  by  its  absence.  That's  why  they  usually  get 
nowhere  except  into  trouble. 

The  new  epoch  ushered  in  by  the  World  War 
is  morally  bewildered  and  bankrupt  for  lack  of  a 
satisfying  aim.  The  world  is  loosened  from  its  old 
moorings  and  drifts  without  a  rudder,  a  formative 
principle.  It  has  not  yet  discovered  a  purpose  road 
on  which  to  travel.  It's  on  its  way  but  doesn't 
know  where  it  is  going.  It  has  motion  but  no  prog- 
ress. It  lacks  a  formula  to  guide  its  thinking  and 
direct  its  action.  The  formula  it  blindly  seeks  is 
the  charter  of  duties. 

Will  the  world  ever  see  the  wisdom  of  substitut- 
ing its  duties  for  its  rights?  No  one  can  say.  All 
one  can  say  is  that  there  is  no  other  practical  way 
of  avoiding  suicidal  wreckage.  The  principle  of 
duty  plus  the  free  acceptance  of  it,  guarantees  per- 
sonal joy  and  social  progress.  Liberty  minus  the 
principle  of  duty  stimulates  personal  egotism  and 
social  anarchy.  On  the  theory  of  rights  the  liberty 
of  one  will  clash  with  the  liberty  of  another  in 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  271 

unending  strife;  heroism  in  behalf  of  the  common 
good  would  be  an  absurdity;  and  progress  would  be 
blocked  by  liberty  unregulated  by  a  high  purpose. 
But  heroism  in  behalf  of  a  cause  bigger  than  one's 
own  personal  interests  is  the  very  thing  the  world 
now  most  admires.  And  what  it  admires  it  will 
one  day  grow  to  be  like. 

When  one  realizes  the  ruin  now  wrought  by  the 
theory  of  rights  and  considers  what  would  happen 
if  it  should  become  the  permanent  foundation  of 
society,  it  seems  to  him  unthinkable  that  men  will 
continue  to  guarantee  their  own  defeat,  and  he 
cries  out  with  Mazzini:  "No,  certainly,  it  was  not 
to  attain  the  ignoble  and  immoral  every  one  for  him- 
self that  so  many  great  men,  holy  martyrs  of 
thought,  have  shed,  from  epoch  to  epoch,  the  tears 
of  the  soul,  the  sweat  and  blood  of  the  body." 

This  principle,  as  I  believe,  is  not  only  the  only 
path  to  industrial  peace,  but  is  also  destined  to  be 
the  formula  of  the  future  in  politics  and  religion, 
as  well  as  in  economics.  Inasmuch  as  I  believe  that 
this  principle  is  the  transforming  power  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  new  industrial  America,  I  will  emphasize 
it  by  quoting  a  bill  of  duties,  which  I  prepared  and 
presented  to  the  Community  Division  of  the  Pan- 
Pacific  Educational  Congress,  meeting  recently  at 
Honolulu,  embracing  the  twenty-two  nations  and 
self-governing  colonies  bordering  the  Pacific,  and 
which  was  adopted.  I  quote  it  to  exhibit  the  prin- 
ciples which  the  theory  of  duties  involves,  and  be- 


272    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

cause  these  principles  apply  to  industrial  politics 
exactly  the  same  as  to  international  politics.  It  is 
as  follows: 

A  Bill  of  Duties 

We,  the  members  of  the  Community  Conference  of  the 
Pan-Pacific  Union,  assembled  at  Honolulu,  believing  that  all 
disputes  among  nations  can  be  settled  as  easily  and  more 
effectively  before  instead  of  after  armed  conflict,  but  realiz- 
ing that  the  success  of  this  process  depends  on  operating  it 
from  the  standpoint  of  duties  instead  of  rights,  and  that  only 
such  a  state  of  mind  affords  any  hope  of  solving  problems 
of  international  politics,  hereby  adopt  the  following  bill  of 
duties  and  pledge  ourselves  to  work  for  its  acceptance  by  the 
public  opinion  of  our  respective  nations: 

1.  We  will  think  first  of  our  duties  to  other  nations 
before  we  consider  the  corresponding  rights  depending  upon 
them. 

2.  In  all  discussion  of  our  relationship,  both  official  and 
unofficial,  we  will  put  truth  in  the  first  place  and  not  in  the 
second  place. 

3.  We  will  endeavor  to  acquire  the  habit  of  differing  in 
opinion  without  differing  in  feeling. 

4.  We  will  have  respect  for  our  racial  differences  and 
accentuate  the  resemblances  among  us,  as  common  human 
denominators. 

5.  We  will  exercise  mental  hospitality  toward  the  stand- 
ards of  other  nations  rather  than  seek  to  impose  our  stand- 
ards upon  them. 

6.  We  will  aim  to  transform  our  commerce  into  a  peace- 
maker by  operating  it   as   an  exchange   of   mutual   service 
rather  than  a  system  of  exploitation. 

7.  We  will  have  a  decent  respect   for   the  opinion  of 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  273 

mankind   rather  than   regard  the  self-centered  opinions  of 
our  own  nations. 

8.  We  will  promote  free  trade  in  friendship,  assisting 
each  other  by  pooling  our  experience  in  science,  commerce, 
and  art. 

9.  We   will   aim    to  promote   the   prosperity   of    other 
nations,  recognizing  the  legitimate  selfishness  that  the  pros- 
perity of  each  depends  on  the  prosperity  of  all. 

10.  We  will  seek  to  make  known   the   discovery  that 
nations  have   like   interests,   to  secure   their   recognition   as 
common   interests,   and   to  compel   the  conclusion   that   all 
wars  are  therefore  civil  wars. 

It  is  highly  suggestive  and  appropriate  to  borrow 
from  the  field  of  international  politics  a  guiding 
principle  to  apply  to  our  domestic  industrial  conflict. 
With  clear  insight  Glenn  Frank  points  out  the  or- 
ganic similarity  of  the  problem  in  these  fields  of 
activity.  He  says :  "The  two  fundamental  problems 
of  our  time  are  the  problem  of  international  rela- 
tions and  the  problem  of  industrial  relations.  What 
is  not  widely  enough  recognized  is  that  they  are 
one  problem,  both  damned  by  the  same  sins,  both 
subject  to  the  same  solution.  In  both  international 
and  industrial  relations  we  are  faced  with  the  break- 
down of  the  balance-of-power  theory  of  government. 
In  every  instance  it  has  ended  in  a  disastrous  con- 
flict. It  has  all  along  ministered  to  a  sense  of  con- 
flicting interests  where  common  interests  should 
have  been  the  basis  of  action.  In  industry  we  have 
had  the  old  sickening  cycle  of  competitive  arma- 
ments, a  sense  of  conflicting  interests,  a  constant 


274    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

effort  on  the  part  of  each  industrial  group  to  tip 
the  balance  in  its  favor,  a  sense  of  insecurity  that 
has  halted  we  know  not  how  much  enterprise,  and 
the  periodic  industrial  wars  that  we  hide  under  the 
euphemism  of  a  strike.  Collective  bargaining  is  a 
vast  advance  over  the  old  unequal  system  of  indi- 
vidual wage  contracts,  but  it  is  only  an  expedient 
adopted  on  the  way  toward  some  intelligent  organ- 
ization of  industrial  relations." 

In  a  recent  magazine  article,  Walter  B.  Pitkin 
makes  a  pointed  application  of  the  truth  of  Mr. 
Frank's  contention,  which  reveals  still  further  the 
vital  connection  between  these  two  problems.  He 
says: 

"This  brings  us  to  the  one  obstacle  to  world 
peace  which  lies  wholly  within  our  own  gates.  We 
have  most  of  the  world's  gold,  most  of  the  free 
capital,  immense  factories,  and  millions  of  skilled 
workers.  The  unbalance  of  trade  has  ruined  our 
foreign  trade  with  Europe;  our  exports  and  im- 
ports declined  fifty  per  cent,  in  the  first  seven  months 
of  this  year;  Germany  is  selling  textiles  sixty  per 
cent,  cheaper  than  we  can;  German  mills  are  under- 
bidding Pittsburgh  in  our  domestic  steel  market; 
our  automobile  factories  are  running  at  fifty-seven 
per  cent,  capacity;  and  five  million  workers  are  idle, 
as  winter  comes  on.  Meanwhile,  taxes  refuse  to 
shrink,  and  battleships  are  being  built,  while  our 
farmers  see  their  minute  profits  devoured  by  abnor- 
mal freight-rates  and  our  builders  touch  only  the 


NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AMERICA  275 

most  urgent  contracts.  There  is  but  one  escape 
from  the  deadly  combination  of  war-debts,  an  over- 
expanded  factory  system,  and  a  money  glut.  New 
markets  must  be  tapped  quickly,  new  consumers 
found,  new  desires  created.  But  where  and  how?" 

Then  he  proceeds  to  show  why  for  obvious  rea- 
sons this  market  cannot  at  present  be  found  in 
Europe  and  not  in  South  America,  and  can  only 
be  found  in  China  and  Siberia.  But  the  American 
business  man  cannot  invest  millions  in  the  Far  East 
unless  his  own  country  protects  him  with  as  much 
force  as  necessary.  The  alternative,  therefore,  is 
either  leave  Asia  to  the  Asiatics,  or  else  run  Asia 
and  a  huge  fleet.  Then  Mr.  Pitkin  very  pertinently 
remarks  that  this  logic  is  impeccable  granting  the 
premise,  that  we  must  look  abroad  for  new  markets. 
This  is  the  crucial  statement  in  Mr.  Pitkin's  discus- 
sion. 

Why  look  abroad  for  new  markets,  handicapped 
by  such  conditions  and  dangers,  when  we  could  have 
an  unlimited  and  unutilized  market  at  home,  if  in- 
dustry were  so  organized  as  to  make  it  available? 
The  great  words  once  addressed  by  Tennyson  to 
the  citizens  of  England  convey  a  pointed  present 
message  to  American  business  men : 

Call  home  your  ships  across  the  Biscayan  tides, 
To  blow  the  battle  from  their  oaken  sides, 

Why  waste  you  yonder, 

Their  idle  thunder? 
Why  stay  they  there  to  guard  a  foreign  throne? 

Seamen,  guard  your  own. 


276    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

Have  we  the  industrial  statesmanship  to  construct 
a  new  industrial  America  on  a  democratic  basis,  not 
only  for  our  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  world, 
as  once  we  constructed  a  new  political  democracy, 
which  has  exerted  an  inspiring  and  transforming 
influence  throughout  the  world? 


CHAPTER    X 

SPORTSMANSHIP 

TS  there  any  ground  to  justify  the  hope  that  a 
•*•  new  industrial  America  will  be  constructed  on 
the  manhood  principle?  Certainly.  The  warrant 
for  this  expectation,  stated  laconically,  is  the  fact 
that  God  is  not  dead.  In  periods  of  democracy's 
apparent  failure,  its  sincere  friends  should  stake 
their  hope  on  the  unassailable  position  taken  by 
James  Russell  Lowell  in  a  similar  circumstance, 
when  he  said:  "I  have  great  comfort  in  God.  I 
think  He  is  considerably  amused  sometimes,  but  on 
the  whole  loves  us,  and  would  not  let  us  get  at  the 
match  box  if  He  did  not  know  that  the  frame  of 
the  universe  was  fire-proof."  He  knew,  as  every- 
one ought  to  know,  that  the  principles  on  which  the 
world  is  built  are  fire-proof,  that  ultimately  they 
are  irresistible,  that  the  stars  in  their  courses  are 
fighting  in  behalf  of  democracy.  It  is  not  possible 
to  circumvent  God,  however  much  politicians  may 
think  they  can  do  it. 

Mr.  Baker  closes  his  creative  and  wholesome 
book  on  "Industrial  Unrest"  with  a  statement  con- 
taining the  pregnant  idea,  the  crucial  importance  of 
which  for  modern  industry  I  am  writing  this  entire 

277 


278    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

book  to  demonstrate.  He  says:  "There  is  a  solu- 
tion. It  consists  in  the  attitude,  the  spirit,  which 
one  maintains  towards  the  labour  problem — an  ad- 
venturous, inquiring,  experimental  attitude,  ever 
hospitable  toward  new  facts:  and  a  generous  and 
democratic  spirit.  I  wonder  if  men  can  find  this 
solution  in  its  completeness  without  some  high  faith 
in  God,  and  some  vital  interest  in  their  fellowmen." 
No,  Mr.  Baker,  they  cannot.  My  conviction  is 
that  you  are  right.  It  is  also  my  conviction  that 
men  will  discover  the  solution  in  the  way  you  sug- 
gest, because  they  will  discover  that  every  other  road 
is  a  dead-end.  Just  as  did  Napoleon,  who  after 
Moscow  exclaimed:  "The  Almighty  is  too  strong 
for  me."  And  just  as  did  Heine,  Germany's  great- 
est satirist,  who  when  lying  on  his  "mattress-grave" 
in  Paris  cried  out :  "Alas,  the  irony  of  heaven  weighs 
heavily  upon  me.  The  great  Author  of  the  universe, 
the  Celestial  Aristophanes,  wished  to  show  me,  the 
petty,  earthly,  German  Aristophanes,  how  my  most 
trenchant  satires  are  only  clumsy  patchwork  com- 
pared with  His,  and  how  immeasurably  He  exceeds 
me  in  humor  and  colossal  wit."  The  captains  of 
industry  will  likewise  discover  that  "God  also  is 
wise."  Not  that  He  is  a  satirist,  but  He  seems  to 
be  determined  that  men  shall  not  defeat  themselves. 
They  have  freedom  to  choose  wrong  roads,  but 
these  roads  are  so  hedged  about  with  penalties  for 
those  who  travel  them,  as  to  make  the  right  road 
the  only  safe  thoroughfare.  Men  may  make  this 


SPORTSMANSHIP  279 

discovery  either  through  "high  faith  in  God"  or 
through  the  logic  of  facts.  In  either  case  the  result 
is  the  same.  They  will  yield  obedience  to  the  social 
law  of  duty,  by  discovering  the  penalties  attached 
to  its  violation;  by  discovering  that  nothing  else  will 
work;  that  the  only  real  freedom  is  the  freedom  to 
do  right,  even  if  they  are  not  wise  enough  to  make 
the  discovery  without  paying  so  high  a  price  for  it 
as  Heine  and  Napoleon  did. 

You  may  say  anything  you  please  against  the 
democratic  manhood  principle  as  an  industrial  pol- 
icy, except  that  any  other  policy  has  ever  worked 
any  better.  If  no  other  policy  has  ever  worked 
better,  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  those,  who 
refuse  to  accept  this  one.  Let  us  frankly  recognize 
that  the  democratic  principle,  either  in  government 
or  industry,  is  difficult  to  operate,  as  all  good  things 
are,  just  because  they  are  good.  The  measure  of 
its  merit  is  the  degree  of  its  difficulty.  Fisher  Ames 
said:  "A  monarchy  is  a  merchantman  which  sails 
well  but  will  sometimes  strike  a  rock  and  go  to  the 
bottom,  whilst  a  republic  is  a  raft  which  will  never 
sink,  but  then  your  feet  are  always  in  the  water." 
Let  us  even  grant  that  it  may  be  hot  water,  what 
then?  The  objection  finds  its  complete  answer  in 
the  fact,  that  democracy's  aim  is  not  efficiency,  but 
the  self-development  of  individuals.  It  is  their  right 
to  make  mistakes,  because  only  by  the  method  of 
trial  and  error  can  self-development  proceed.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  in  industry,  this  method  proves 


280    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

to  be  in  the  long  run  more  efficient,  but  this  is  not 
its  chief  aim.  Another  student  of  democracy  re- 
marked that  the  way  to  a  throne  usually  lies  through 
blood,  that  is,  it  used  to  when  the  king  business  was 
popular,  but  that  the  way  to  the  presidency  in  a 
democracy  lies  through  mud.  Very  well;  mud  is 
not  as  bad  as  blood. 

The  question  as  to  whether  the  manhood  principle 
will  be  adopted  as  an  industrial  policy  is  not  an  open 
question,  but  a  foregone  conclusion.  Anyone  fam- 
iliar with  history,  with  human  nature  and  with  God, 
never  doubts  it.  It  is  not  a  question  of  whether; 
it  is  only  a  question  of  when.  As  to  when,  there 
are  signs  of  hope  for  its  realization  in  the  not 
distant  future.  What  furnishes  this  hope  is  the 
spirit  of  sportsmanship,  which  is  a  distinguishing 
characteristic  of  Anglo-Saxon  men,  and  the  chief 
guarantee  of  democracy's  success,  aside  from  the 
fact  that  God  is  a  democrat  and  still  lives.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  says  that  sportsmanship  is  "to 
brag  little ;  to  show  up  well ;  to  crow  gently  when  in 
luck;  to  own  up,  to  pay  up,  to  shut  up  when  beaten. " 
Both  the  leaders  of  labor  and  the  leaders  of  capital 
ought  to  own  up  that  they  are  beaten,  that  the 
method  of  organized  conflict,  on  which  they  are 
operating,  is  a  failure,  and  that  it  should  be  replaced 
by  the  method  of  free  and  organized  co-operation. 
They  both  now  ought  honestly  to  undertake  the  task 
of  learning  to  ride  the  horse  that  threw  them.  The 
human  tendency  is  to  try  out  every  wrong  method 


SPORTSMANSHIP  281 

before  the  right  one  is  accepted.  By  this  time 
almost  all  the  wrong  methods  have  been  tried  and 
found  wanting.  If  industrial  leaders  are  true  sports- 
men, they  will  freely  acknowledge  the  fact  as  it 
is,  and  adopt  the  manhood  principle,  which  has 
the  promise  of  success. 

The  statement  that  our  hope  for  this  solution 
of  the  labor  problem  rests  on  the  fact  that  God 
is  not  dead,  while  accurate  and  sufficient,  is  no 
doubt  too  laconic  and  needs  translation  into  particu- 
lars. Let  me  say,  therefore,  that  my  hope  rests  on 
three  facts,  namely:  the  spirit  of  nobility;  the 
motive  of  self-interest;  the  increasing  fear  that 
the  alternative  is  a  social  hell.  I  realize  that  the 
phrase  "social  hell"  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  be- 
cause hell  is  not  a  social  place  to  be  in;  it  is  anti- 
social. The  word  means  "isolated."  As  applied 
to  a  place,  it  means  the  same  as  the  word  "idiot," 
applied  to  a  person.  The  word  "idiot"  is  the  Greek 
word  for  "private,"  peculiar  to  one's  self,  unrelated 
to  the  interest  of  others.  Hell  is  therefore  inhab- 
ited only  by  "idiots";  a  typical  Hellite  is  an  "idiot," 
that  is,  a  non-cooperator.  But  I  use  this  self-con- 
tradictory phrase  to  make  pointed  my  meaning  that 
the  hell,  here  suggested,  does  not  refer  to  one  in 
some  future  world,  but  an  industrial  hell  now. 

Past  and  present  conditions  make  such  an  event 
neither  inconceivable  nor  impossible.  Military  and 
industrial  wars,  together  with  the  entailed  suffering 
in  spirit  and  body,  make  every  man,  who  has  the 


232    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

instincts  of  nobility,  sometimes  feel  like  an  exile 
and  alien  in  a  planet  like  ours.  He  can  well  appre- 
ciate the  sentiment  expressed  to  Robinson  Crusoe 
on  his  second  voyage  by  a  Russian  Prince,  exiled 
in  Siberia,  where  Crusoe  spent  a  winter  on  his 
return  from  China,  through  Russia  to  England. 
After  hearing  the  account  of  Crusoe's  island  life, 
apart  from  so-called  civilization,  the  Prince  said 
that  uthe  true  greatness  of  life  was  to  be  masters 
of  ourselves;  that  he  would  not  have  exchanged 
such  a  state  of  life  as  mine  to  be  Czar  of  Muscovy; 
and  that  he  found  more  felicity  in  the  retirement  he 
seemed  to  be  banished  to  there,  than  ever  he  found 
in  the  highest  authority  he  enjoyed  in  the  court  of 
his  master,  the  Czar;  that  he  found  the  mind  of 
man,  if  it  was  but  once  brought  to  reflect  upon  the 
state  of  universal  life,  and  how  little  this  world  was 
concerned  in  its  true  felicity,  was  perfectly  capable 
of  making  a  felicity  for  itself;  and  though  the 
greatness,  the  authority,  the  riches,  and  the  pleas- 
ures which  some  enjoyed  in  the  world,  had  much  in 
them  that  was  agreeable  to  us,  yet  all  those  things 
chiefly  gratified  the  coarsest  in  our  affections,  such 
as  our  ambition,  our  particular  pride,  avarice, 
vanity,  and  sensuality;  all  which,  being  the  mere 
product  of  the  worst  part  of  man,  were  in  them- 
selves crimes,  and  had  in  them  the  seeds  of  all 
manner  of  crimes;  but  neither  were  related  to,  nor 
concerned  with,  any  of  those  virtues  that  constituted 


us  wise  men." 


SPORTSMANSHIP  283 

The  motive  of  fear  among  the  three  here  sug- 
gested, I  do  not  press  as  an  argument,  although  it 
would  be  short-sighted  to  overlook  a  possible  critical 
factor,  such  as  this.  During  the  critical  days  of 
1848  in  France,  the  following  solemn  words  were 
addressed  by  a  conservative,  Alexis  de  Tocqueville, 
to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies: 

"For  the  first  time  I  feel  a  certain  fear  for  the 
future,  and  what  convinces  me  that  I  am  right  is 
that  this  is  not  simply  a  personal  impression  of 
mine;  I  think  I  may  appeal  to  all  who  are  here,  and 
all  will  admit  that  a  certain  uneasiness,  an  indefin- 
able fear  has  taken  possession  of  all  spirits,  that  for 
the  first  time  the  feeling,  the  sense  of  instability, 
this  warning  sentiment  of  revolution,  which  some- 
times heralds  them,  and  at  others  gives  birth  to 
them, — that  this  feeling  is  both  intense  and  wide- 
spread. Are  you  certain  of  the  morrow?  Do  you 
know  what  will  happen  in  a  year,  a  month,  a  day? 
You  do  not  know,  but  what  you  do  know  is  that 
there  is  a  storm  on  the  horizon,  that  it  is  descending 
upon  you — will  you  allow  it  to  overtake  you? 

"Gentlemen,  I  beg  you  not  to,  I  do  not  demand,  I 
beseech  you;  I  would  willingly  throw  myself  on  my 
knees  before  you,  so  real  and  grave  do  I  consider 
the  danger,  so  convinced  am  I  of  this,  that  to 
mention  it  is  not  a  mere  flight  of  rhetoric.  If  the 
danger  is  great,  provide  against  it  while  there  is 
still  time,  correct  the  evils,  change  the  present  sys- 
tem, for  this  system  is  leading  you  to  destruction." 


284    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

This  warning  was  given  on  January  27,  1848. 
In  four  weeks  Louis  Phillippe  was  swept  from  the 
throne  of  France  by  the  Revolution.  No  one  can 
say  how  pertinent  a  warning  like  this  may  or  may 
not  be  today  in  America.  While  the  argument  is 
perfectly  legitimate,  yet  it  is  an  appeal  to  fear, 
and  an  appeal  to  fear  is  always  weak,  and  mostly 
futile.  It  is  unworthy  of  American  citizens  to  at- 
tempt to  reconstruct  our  industry  because  they  are 
actuated  by  the  fear  of  what  may  happen  if  they  do 
not.  Hope,  and  not  fear,  is  the  true  creative 
principle. 

The  second  element  in  our  hope  is  the  motive 
of  self-interest.  The  appeal  to  intelligent  self-in- 
terest is  higher  than  an  appeal  to  fear,  and  is  also 
entirely  legitimate.  A  very  firm  ground  of  our 
hope  is  that  factory  owners  will  discover  that  the 
new  policy  will  pay.  This  is  a  powerful  and  ines- 
capable motive.  The  loss  resulting  from  all  other 
policies  is  the  road,  which  will  lead  them  to  this 
discovery.  Lincoln  once  stated  picturesquely  the 
teaching  value  of  this  process.  "I  cannot  run  the 
political  machine;  I  have  enough  on  my  hands  with- 
out that.  It  is  the  people's  business — the  election 
is  in  their  hands.  If  they  turn  their  backs  to  the 
fire  and  get  scorched  in  the  rear,  they'll  find  they 
have  to  sit  on  the  blister."  This  is  a  big  price  to 
pay  for  information,  but  it  is  worth  it.  Our  hope 
lies  in  the  fact  that  both  owners  and  workmen  have 
been  sitting  for  so  long  a  time  on  self-inflicted 


SPORTSMANSHIP  285 

blisters,  that  they  are  now  disposed  to  stop  turning 
their  backs  to  the  fire  and  getting  needlessly 
scorched.  In  the  school  of  hard  knocks  they  will 
be  compelled  to  discover  that  they  have  like  inter- 
ests, that  these  interests  are  common  interests,  and 
that  in  the  civil  war  they  are  conducting  neither 
side  can  win.  No  enterprise  can  escape  serious 
loss  to  all  involved  in  it,  when  it  is  conducted  on  the 
basis  of  a  civil  war. 

But  neither  the  appeal  to  fear  nor  the  appeal  to 
self-interest  is  the  real  creative  motive.  It  is  the 
first  of  the  three  we  suggested,  the  spirit  of  nobility. 
Not  the  struggle  to  avoid  the  evil,  but  the  attempt 
to  secure  the  good,  has  always  been  the  key  to 
social  progress.  The  typical  American  citizen,  and 
his  number  is  not  small,  is  a  man  with  innate  nobility. 
He  understands  America's  original  purpose;  he  puts 
the  community's  interest  above  his  own;  he  has  a 
genuine  desire  to  lift  artificial  burdens  from  all 
shoulders  and  give  every  man  a  fair  chance  in  the 
race  of  life;  he  understands  that  America's  purpose 
cannot  be  fulfilled  unless  democracy  is  applied  to 
industry;  he  frankly  accepts  Walt  Whitman's  true 
definition  of  democracy:  "By  God,  I  will  have 
nothing  that  all  other  men  may  not  have  the  counter- 
part of  on  like  terms" :  he  perceives  that  the  present 
basis  of  industry  is  morally  wrong,  and  that  it  must 
be  reconstructed;  he  is  not  an  egotist,  who  boasts 
of  his  perfect  Americanism  and  uses  the  boast  to 
teach  workingmen  their  place  by  the  method  of  the 


286    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

club;  nor  is  he  a  radical,  who  entertains  any  vain 
hope  that  the  millennium  can  be  inaugurated  to- 
morrow; he  is  a  balanced  liberal-minded  man  of 
experience,  who  realizes  that  the  industrial  war,  if 
continued,  may  mean  ruin  for  his  business  and  the 
failure  of  America  and  who  is  patiently  trying  to 
reconstruct  industry  on  the  manhood  principle  and 
searching  for  the  best  way  of  doing  it. 

In  the  large  number  of  this  type  of  men  among 
the  captains  of  industry  lies  the  hope  of  the  peaceful 
reconstruction  of  industry  on  the  manhood  principle. 
In  the  face  of  the  persistence  of  the  sheep-nature 
among  their  fellows,  these  men  are  the  bell-wethers 
to  lead  the  way  to  a  new  industrial  America.  In 
his  estimate  of  them,  H.  L.  Gantt,  a  pioneer  of  the 
new  America,  was  correct  when  he  said:  uWe  do 
not  need  a  revolution,  we  do  not  need  a  class  war. 
Most  people  will  work  for  the  common  good  if 
you  give  them  a  chance.  The  trouble  is  that  we 
have  been  clinging  to  an  autocratic  system  under 
the  mistaken  idea  that  it  was  good,  at  least  for  the 
aristocrat.  The  fact  is,  that  it  isn't.  Democracy 
is  far  better  for  all  of  us.  Industrial  democracy 
will  release  our  energies  and  make  us  the  strongest 
people  on  earth." 

If  any  one  protests  that  the  hope  for  the  volun- 
tary reconstruction  of  industry  on  this  basis  is  not 
justified,  the  sufficient  answer  is  that  it  has  already 
begun  to  happen.  The  moral  awakening  of  the 
wealthy  is  now  in  process.  They  are  finding  it  a 


SPORTSMANSHIP  287 

thrilling  adventure.  The  number  of  industrial 
plants,  which  have  already  begun  to  apply  the  man- 
hood principle  is  the  most  inspiring  event  in  America 
since  the  war,  but  that  is  another  story  and  lies 
outside  of  my  present  purpose.  If  you  want  the 
story,  look  around  you.  When  one  large  employer 
says,  as  he  did  recently:  "I  do  not  care  to  make 
more  money,  I  have  all  the  money  I  want.  I  am 
interested  in  discovering  what  is  right  in  industrial 
relations";  when  another  employer,  who  had  begun 
to  apply  the  manhood  principle  says :  "It's  the  most 
interesting  thing  I  ever  did  in  my  life.  It  beats 
mere  money-making  all  hollow";  when  the  office  of 
one  of  the  leading  capitalists  of  Wall  Street  has 
framed  and  hanging  on  its  wall  the  following  quo- 
tation from  a  speech  by  Mr.  Asquith:  "The  old 
system  has  broken  down.  War  was  its  final  declar- 
ation of  insolvency.  New  factors  are  at  work. 
Science  not  only  has  not  said  her  last  words  but  is 
fairly  to  be  described  as  still  only  lisping  the  alpha- 
bet of  annihilation";  when  Ida  Tarbell,  who  is  a 
careful  observer,  testifies  that  "The  new  kind  of 
employer  is  seeing  a  significance  and  a  possibility 
in  humanizing  his  relations  that  he  formerly  did 
not  dream.  He  is  developing  the  inspiring  con- 
sciousness that  it  is  possible  for  him  to  be  not  a 
mere  manufacturer  of  things  for  personal  profit, 
but  as  well  as  maker  of  men  and  women  for  society's 
profit."  In  view  of  these  facts  is  it  not  apparent 


288     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

that  the  dawn  of  the  new  day  is  standing  tiptoe 
on  the  mountain  top? 

To  what  extent  these  enlightened  leaders  will  be 
able  to  make  their  influence  effective  in  promoting 
a  revolution  by  consent  remains  to  be  seen,  but  they 
are  making  a  sincere  effort,  which  deserves  unstinted 
recognition  and  cordial  support  by  all  citizens  of 
good-will.  These  leaders  are  stimulated  by  the 
memory  that  America  once  before,  witnessed  an 
industrial  revolution,  when  the  labor  status  of  indus- 
trial slaves  was  changed  by  a  fratricidal  war  in 
the  1860s.  They  desire  to  avoid  the  tragic  blunder, 
made  at  that  time  by  some  of  their  fellow  capital- 
ists, a  blunder  typified  by  the  hard-headed,  "prac- 
tical" man,  David  Christy,  who  six  years  before 
the  Civil  War,  wrote  a  book  called  "Cotton  is 
King."  He  had  no  use  for  any  foolish  sentiment, 
he  said.  He  took  the  hard  facts  of  life  as  he 
found  them,  and  he  went  on  to  show  that  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Southern  cotton-growers  demanded 
slavery  if  they  were  to  prosper;  and  further,  that 
the  interests  of  the  Northern  manufacturers  of  cot- 
ton in  the  mills  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York 
also  demanded  cheap  cotton,  which  could  be  best 
produced  by  slave-labor  in  the  South;  and  further, 
that  the  whole  American  people,  wearing  cotton 
clothing,  most  of  them,  every  day  in  the  year,  de- 
manded this  same  system  of  production;  and  that 
therefore  the  whole  agitation  about  the  abolition 
of  slavery  was  but  the  troubled  dream  of  a  few 


SPORTSMANSHIP  289 

silly  enthusiasts.  "Cotton  is  King,"  he  said,  "and 
it  will  finally  determine  the  issue." 

"But  hard-headed,  practical  man  though  he 
was,"  remarked  Dr.  Charles  R.  Brown,  "he  was 
utterly  and  eternally  mistaken.  Cotton  was  not 
king — love  was  king!  Love  of  country  and  love 
of  freedom,  love  of  humanity,  and  love  of  God — 
love  was  king  even  in  that  hour  when  David  Christy 
was  writing  out  his  claims  about  the  kingship  of 
cotton.  And,  indeed,  before  the  ink  was  fairly 
dry  upon  the  pages  of  his  book,  amid  the  rattle  of 
musketry  and  the  roar  of  cannon,  in  the  quiet  tones 
of  Lincoln's  inaugural  address  and  in  the  prayers  of 
millions  of  people,  the  fundamental  lordship  of  love 
was  being  effectively  asserted.  Men  and  women 
did  great  deeds  in  those  days;  they  made  great 
sacrifices;  they  carried  through  great  enterprises  not 
because  they  were  being  paid  for  it  in  cotton — they 
were  not  paid  for  it  at  all.  They  did  it  because 
they  loved — they  loved  their  country,  they  loved 
liberty,  they  loved  humanity,  and  they  loved  God 
more  than  any  material  advantage  whatsoever. 
Love  is  king!" 

You  may  call  it  love,  or  God,  or  the  manhood 
principle,  or  by  whatever  term  you  choose,  but  this 
is  the  creator  of  revolutions  in  behalf  of  the  com- 
mon welfare.  It  will  create  the  new  industrial 
America,  as  once  before  it  created  America's  in- 
dustrial revolution,  which  issued  in  her  Civil  War. 
The  tragedy  of  the  industrial  revolution  of  1860 


290    ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

was  that  the  love,  which  wrought  it,  had  lightning 
in  it.  It  is  the  sincere  prayer  of  all  true  lovers 
of  their  country,  and  they  have  good  reason  for 
hope,  that  the  new  industrial  America  will  be  created 
by  love  without  lightning;  that  it  will  be  a  revolu- 
tion by  consent. 


AFTERWORD 

On  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  in  the  city  where 
he  was  martyred,  has  recently  been  erected  a  fitting 
memorial  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  simplicity  of 
its  Ionic  columns,  designed  by  Henry  Bacon;  the 
mural  paintings  on  Unity,  Fraternity  and  Charity 
by  Jules  Guerin;  and  above  all  the  twenty  foot 
statue,  by  Daniel  Chester  French,  revealing  Lin- 
coln, the  lonely  burden-bearer,  but  conscious  of  his 
strength  to  carry  it,  the  terraces,  trees  and  great 
reflecting  pool,  standing  on  the  same  axis  with  the 
Capitol  Building  and  Washington  Monument,  and 
combining  grandeur  with  beauty, — all  impressively 
symbolize  the  character  of  the  man  and  make  it  one 
of  the  most  notable  monuments  ever  erected.  It  is 
isolated,  distinguished  and  serene,  as  John  Hay 
said  it  should  be. 

During  the  progress  of  the  work,  covering  a 
period  of  more  than  ten  years,  all  concerned  in  it, 
members  of  the  commission,  architects,  artists,  stone 
cutters,  laborers,  showed  a  spirit  of  co-operation  as 
if  for  a  cause  they  loved.  There  were  no  strikes, 
no  lockouts,  no  profiteering,  no  labor  turn-over. 
The  same  workmen  who  were  there  at  the  begin- 
ning were  there  at  the  finish.  Does  any  one  need  to 

291 


292     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

ask  why  their  work  was  a  form  of  worship?  Is  the 
reason  not  obvious  to  all? 

Lincoln  believed  that  what  gave  birth  to  the 
nation  was  the  manhood  principle,  which  he  said 
meant  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men,  to  lift  arti- 
ficial weights  from  all  shoulders,  to  afford  all  an 
unfettered  start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of 
life.  During  his  speech  at  Independence  Hall  in 
1860,  after  expounding  America's  purpose,  he  made 
the  prophetic  remark  that  if  the  nation  could  not  be 
maintained  on  this  principle  he  would  rather  be 
assassinated  on  the  spot. 

When  industry  is  organized  on  this  principle,  and 
its  leaders  are  as  true  to  it  as  Lincoln  was,  industry 
will  present  no  problem,  but  rather  an  opportunity 
for  the  association  and  self-development  of  citizens. 


THE  END. 


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QUICK,  HERBERT.  The  Broken  Lance.  Indianapolis: 
Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  1907. 

RATHENAU,  WALTER.  The  New  Society.  New  York: 
Harcourt,  Brace  &  Co.,  1921. 

RAUSCHENBUSCH,  WALTER.  Christianizing  the  Social  Or- 
der. New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company,  1912. 


296     ROBINSON  CRUSOE,  SOCIAL  ENGINEER 

READE,  CHARLES.  Put  Yourself  in  His  Place.  New  York : 
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New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers,  1922. 

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pany, 1902. 


INDEX 


Aims  of  Labor,  by  Henderson, 

109 

Ames,  Fisher,  on  Democracy,  279 
America  as  a  society,  115 
American  Revolution,  the,  mean- 
ing of,  57-58 

American,  a  typical,  285-286 
Anti-Trust  Law,  Clayton  amend- 
ment to,  136 

Aristotle,  his  significant  ques- 
tion, 149;  on  friendship,  189 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard,  his  The 
New  Industrial  Unrest,  239 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  quoted,  144 

Bergson,  M.,  on  why  the  soul 
of  our  age  is  too  small  for 
its  body,  264 

Bill  of  Particulars,  A,  for  in- 
dustrial reconstruction,  228- 
230;  how  it  differs  from  a 
survey,  238 

Blincoe,  Robert,  Story  of  his 
suffering,  75 

Boys,  the  sensory  type  of,  164 

Brandeis,  Justice,  on  Business  a 
profession,  223 

Briffault,  Robert,  quoted,  255 

Brown,  Charles  R.,  on  Love  is 
King,  289 

Browning,  Mrs.,  The  Cry  of 
the  Children,  quoted,  82 ;  on 
machinery,  113 

Burns,  Robert,  poem  by,  35 

Capital,  and  Labor,  not  the  same 

kind  of  thing,  137 
Carlyle,  quoted,  44;  48;  62;  263 
Cartwright,  Edward,  his  power- 
loom,  63 


Children,  why  they  want  to  run 
away  from  home,  4;  unrecog- 
nized capacity  of,  14;  per- 
sisted abuse  of,  75 ;  laws  for 
their  protection,  83 

Christy,  David,  his  Cotton  is 
King,  288 

Circumstantial  invention,  34 

Collins,  poem  by,  35 

Commonplaces,  why  they  are 
unknown,  5 ;  how  to  romanti- 
cize, 40 

Common  Law,  The,  203 

Commons?  John  R.,  his,  Indus- 
trial Government,  239 

Condorcet,  quoted,  87 

Cottage  industry,  described,  67- 
68 ;  destroyed,  69 

Courage,  a  description  of,  46-47 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  quoted,  120; 
128 

Dante,  on   knowing  the   future, 

47 

Defoe,  his  judgment  on  the  story 
and  reflections  of  Crusoe  re- 
versed, 10-11,  13;  his  appear- 
ance, 19 ;  father  of  modern 
journalism,  21 

Democracy,  political,  dependent 
on  industrial,  128 ;  does  not 
aim  at  efficiency,  but  achieves 
it,  279 

Dickens,  Charles,  on  Crusoe,  24; 
31;  his  Christmas  Carol,  159- 
160 

Dooley,  Mr.,  on  "The  Open 
Shop,"  86 

Duties,  the  theory  of,  as  an 
economic  law,  268-269;  the 


297 


298 


INDEX 


formula    of   the    future,   271 ; 
"A  Bill  of  Duties,"  272-273 
Economic  determinism,  108 

Emerson  on  Crusoe,  14;  40;  his 
poem  Each  and  All,  61 ;  his 
solution  of  the  labor  problem, 
146 

Engineering  Boards,  see  Social 
Engineering  Boards 

Factory  Girl's  Last  Day,  The,  81 

Federation  of  American  Engi- 
neering Societies,  Resolution 
by,  234 

Force,  the  futility  of,  178 

Fortune-tellers,  the  damage 
done  by,  47 

Frank,  Glenn,  on  the  balance- 
of-power  theory,  273 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  on  Projects, 
29 

Freetrader  in  Friendship,  186 

Gantt,  H.  L.,  quoted,  286 
Golden    Rule,    The,    misunder- 
stood, 147;  Henry  George  on, 
147 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  his  Deserted 

Village,  quoted,  72 
Government,  as  a  police  power, 

177 

Gratitude,  meaning  of,  44 
Gray,    Albert,    his    dying    mes- 
sage, 145 

Grayson,  David,  quoted,  164-165 
Great  War,  The,  its  relation  to 
the  Labor  Problem,  no 

Half  is  more  than  the  whole,  12 

Hargreaves,  James,  his  inven- 
tion of  the  Spinning-jenny,  62  ; 
70 

Harrison,  Frederic,  on  Crusoe, 
2;  53 

Hawaiian  Sugar  Plantation,  the 
causes  of  its  trouble  and  how 
to  remove  them,  250-254 


Heine,  on  God  as  a  satirist,  278 

Hell,  William  Allen  White's 
idea  of,  107 ;  full  of  news- 
value,  246;  a  "social  hell,"  281 

Henley,  poem  by,  48 

Hobson,  J.  A.,  his  method  of 
revolution  by  consent,  210 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  on 
Sportsmanship,  280 

Huxley,  Prof.,  quoted,  92 

Industry,   and   foreign   markets, 

170 
Industry,  a  community  concern, 

161 ;  why  it  can  do  more  than 

Government,  209 
Industry,    how    to    make    it    a 

liberal  profession,  222 
Industrial  Courts,  their  failure, 

178;    why    they    fail,    179;    a 

substitute  for,  182 
Industrial    Reconstruction,    how 

it     happens,      212-218;      how 

Robinson  Crusoe  helps  it,  215 
Industrial    Revolution,    59; 

changed     man's     status,     60; 

what   caused    it,    62;    64;    its 

advantages,      65 ;      increased 

poverty,  66 
Iron  Man,  The,  163 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  on  controlled 

Newspapers,  130;  controversy 

with  Hamilton,  133 
John,    the    Apostle,    on    selling 

souls,  95 

Johnson,  Dr.,  on  Crusoe,  12 
Joke  on  British  Nation,  18-19 
Jones,  Ludlow,   his  Progress   of 

the   Working   Classes,  quoted, 

97 
Jordon,  David  Starr,  on  the  test 

of  a  nation,  109 
Justice,   its    relation   to   charity, 

139 

Kant,  Immanuel,  his  dictum,  221 
Kay,  John,  his  invention  of  the 
shuttle,  62;  69 


INDEX 


299 


Kenyon,  Ex-Senator,  on  Indus- 
trial Courts,  180;  203 

Korzybski,  Count  Alfred,  his 
Manhood  of  Humanity,  149 

Kropotkin,  Prince,  a  recollection 
of  his  childhood,  105 

Labor,  as  a  commodity,  92-93 ; 
Not  a  commodity,  136;  what 
it  is,  137 

Labor  Commissions,  why  they 
should  not  be  composed  of 
"Capital,"  "Labor,"  and  the 
Public,  184 

Labor  Unions,  why  they  were 
started,  84;  not  an  end  in 
themselves,  85;  not  a  funda- 
mental issue,  235;  how  to 
abolish  them,  237 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  quoted,  58; 
187;  balance  between  his  head 
and  heart,  197;  on  labor  and 
capital,  262;  on  learning 
through  mistakes,  284;  his 
memorial  and  its  meaning  for 
the  labor  problem,  291-292 

Longfellow,  his  Village  Black- 
smith, 166 

Love,  as  an  economic  principle, 
143-144 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  on  how 
to  love  one's  country,  116;  his 
Parable,  quoted,  126 ;  his 
ground  of  hope,  277 

Machinery,    opposition    to,    70; 

protest  against   in  India,   71 ; 

was  it  made  for  man  or  man 

for    it,    104;    112;    automatic, 

162 
Man    as    a    "time-binder,"    149- 

150 

Manhood  principle,  the,  why  it 
needs  no  demonstration,  241 ; 
an  organic  law,  242 ;  applied 
to  a  sugar  plantation  of 
Hawaii,  247-250;  a  social 
engineer's  recommendation  for 
its  operation  on  the  Planta- 
tion, 251-252 


Mann,  Horace,  his  contribution 
to  America,  194-195 

Mark  Twain,  quoted,  57;  185; 
269 

Mazzini,  on  what  constitutes  a 
nation,  115;  quoted,  271 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  quoted,  66 

Mitten,  Thomas  E.,  how  he  dis- 
covered the  manhood  principle 
in  industry  and  operated  it, 
243-245 

Modern  business,  its  inspiring 
achievements,  91 ;  its  chief 
blunder,  92 

Money,  Crusoe's  soliloquy,  41 ; 
why  no  poem  is  written  on, 
42;  a  community  enterprise, 
171 

Montessori,  Marie,  on  the  spirit 
of  servitude,  168-169 

Napoleon,  on  use  of  force,  198; 
his  discovery,  278 

Nation,  The,  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  State,  175- 
176 

New  Industrial  America,  258 ; 
how  to  achieve  it,  262 ;  basis 
of  hope  for,  281 

October  15,  1914,  its  signifi- 
cance, 135 

Open  mind,  an,  Confucious  on, 
Socrates  on,  Jesus  on,  117-118 

Open  Shop,  the,  Mr.  Dooley  on, 
86;  New  Jersey  Chamber  of 
Commerce  on,  236 

Pig-killing    institutions,    98 
Pig-trough  philosophy,   106-107; 

13? 

Phillips,  Wendell,  quoted,  52 
Pitkin,  Walter  B.,  on  relation  of 

industrial    to    national    wars, 

274-275 
Poetry,  and  history,  87;   power 

of,   1 86 

Pound,  Arthur,  quoted,   163 
Principle  of  Uncertainty,  37-38; 

40 


300 


INDEX 


Problem,  the  social,  the  same  in 
Politics,  Religion  and  Eco- 
nomics, 123-124 

Production  for  use,  229 

Profit-sharing,  229 

Psychology  applied  to  industry, 
141-142 

Public,  the,  not  "the  party  of 
the  third  part,"  183;  Hegel's 
description  of,  197 

Public  Schools,  197 

Put  yourself  in  his  place,  by 
Reade,  114;  116;  Key  to  social 
intelligence,  117 

Quick,  Herbert,  his  Broken 
Lance,  quoted,  100 

Rauschenbusch,  Walter,  his 
drama  on  the  Discovery  of 
America,  258-261 

Reforms,  why  they  come  from 
outside,  208 

Religion  and  Politics,  125 

Revolution,  America's  Industrial 
in  1860,  288 

Revolution  by  consent,  how  to 
make  it  effective,  211 

Rights,  the  doctrine  of,  266 ;  the 
fallacy  in,  267-268 

Robinson  Crusoe,  original  sub- 
title of,  4;  three  parts  of,  9; 
a  philosophical  book,  113;  not 
intended  to  be  a  boy's  book, 
14;  how  the  idea  of  it  origin- 
ated in  a  goal,  23  ;  criticisms 
of  it,  24;  the  first  English 
novel,  28;  no  love  story  in  it, 
31;  secret  of  its  popularity, 
37;  why  new  editions  are 
printed,  50;  its  challenge  to 
modern  industry,  54;  its 
philosophy  of  life,  282 

Rogers,  Thorold,  quoted,  68 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  represent- 
ing the  public  in  a  coal  strike, 
130 

Rousseau,  on  educational  value 
of  Robinson  Crusoe,  167 


Rowntree,  B.  Seebohm,  his  visit 
to  America,  257-258 

Ruskin,  John,  on  the  division  of 
labor,  94;  his  parable  A  May- 
Day  Party,  155-158;  on  the 
professions,  222 

Ruth's  Sickle,  55 

Selkirk,  Alexander,  25 

Shelley,  his  poem,  What  is 
freedom,  88 

Shortest  way  to  deal  with  Dis- 
senters, 1 8 

Smith,  Adam,  his  Wealth  of 
Nations,  73  ;  his  teaching  per- 
verted, 74;  his  description  of 
pin-making,  93 

Social  engineer,  the,  as  an  in- 
troducer, 198-199;  a  new  pro- 
fession, 218;  232;  a  typical 
speech  by,  219-225 

Social  engineering,  how  it  dif- 
fers from  efficiency  engineer- 
ing, 233-234 

Social  engineering  boards,  182; 
their  nature  and  function,  188  ; 
How  they  promote  good-will, 
189;  how  they  promote  intelli- 
gence, 190;  their  service  to 
the  Science  of  Society,  193- 
194;  their  tasks,  196;  a  Dec- 
laration of  Principles  for  their 
use,  200-202;  suggested  code 
of  working  rules  for,  205-207 

Social  Intelligence,  lack  of,  135; 
need  of,  185 

Socrates,  quoted,  142;  his  dia- 
logue on  "What  is  a  man," 
152;  on  how  to  get  to  Mt. 
Olympus,  247 

Speranza,  Gino,  quoted,  no 

Stetson,  Charlotte  Perkins,  her 
poem,  The  Conservative, 
quoted,  118 

Stoddard,  Lothrop,  quoted,  59 

Surveys,  Industrial,  why  they 
are  omitted  from  this  book, 
240-241 


INDEX 


301 


Taft,    Chief  Justice,   on    Indus- 
trial Courts,  180 
Taylor,  Whately  Cooke,  quoted, 

65 

Tennyson,  quoted,  275 

Tocqueville,  Alexis  de,  his  un- 
heeded warning,  283-284 

Tolstoi,  quoted,   144 

Tools,  social  significance  of,  42- 

43 

Town-meeting,  The,  195 
True-born  Englishman,  The,  16 

United  States  of  America,  The, 
its  formative  principle,  256 

Unrest,  Social,  its  cause,  221 ;  a 
sign  of  hope,  221 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  quoted,  38 
Voltaire,  on  freedom  of  speech, 
191 

Wages  and  Capital  in  the  same 
class,  228 

War,  the  Industrial,  long  con- 
tinued, 91 ;  a  moral  issue,  263  ; 
its  cause,  265 ;  its  cure,  291 

Waste  in  Industry,   115 

Watts,  George  Frederic,  quoted, 
189 


Watt,  James,  invents  the  double 
acting  steam  engine,  63 ;  his 
freedom  to  work  protected  by 
Adam  Smith,  74 

Wealth,  distribution  of,  66;  128- 
129 

Wealthy,  moral  awakening  of 
the,  286-287 

"We,  the  people,"  161-162 

Wells,  H.  G.,  on  need  of  trust- 
worthy money,  171-172 

White,  William  Allen,  his  idea 
of  Hell,  107 

Whitman,  Walt,  quoted,  145 ; 
his  definition  of  democracy, 
285 

Wilkie  Collins7  Moonstone, 
quoted,  5 

Wilson,  President,  establishes 
Federal  Labor  Board,  204 

Wolf,  Robert  B.,  his  statement 
of  the  manhood  principle  in 
industry,  257 

Workingmen,  their  legal  status, 
132;  reduced  to  "hands,"  93; 
136;  what  to  do  with  them, 
a  challenging  question,  142- 
143 ;  are  also  citizens,  161 ; 
their  demand  for  a  new  status 
in  industry,  173 ;  as  allies  of 
owners,  230 


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